Environment Minister Trevor Mallard has introduced two bills in the Parliament to amend aquaculture legislation in order to boost the industry. According to Mallard the Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill will clarify the intent of the original aquaculture reform legislation, which was that applications for aquaculture activities were only to be made in Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs) in operative regional coastal plans.
The minister also said that the Aquaculture Legislation Amendment Bill (No 2) amends legislation to facilitate the creation of new aquaculture management areas (AMAs), address issues relating to invited private plan changes, enable experimental aquaculture, provide for aquaculture agreements in transitional processes under the old Fisheries legislation, support environmental monitoring and other technical amendments relating to the 2004 aquaculture reforms.
It is said that the bills will correct problems with the current aquaculture legislation and improve operation for business, fishermen and local government. The bills ensure that applications for the occupation of the coastal marine area for aquaculture activities cannot be made unless they relate to AMAs in operative regional coastal plans. There are other issues to be addressed such as the timeframes for the review of deemed consents and detail on allocation of space to the trustee under the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act.
