New Zealand fishermen allocated higher quota

Press, 2 April 1980, Page 3

New Zealand fishermen allocated higher quota

PA Wellington,: ■ h A bigger share for local fishermen, a 24 per cent cut! in catches by foreign ves-l seis, and a stronger line with! joint ventures are the! features of the Exclusive i Economic Zone quotas: fori the 1980-81 fishing season,!which began yesterday. > According to the latest I issue of the magazine, “Catch i ’80,” the total allowable | catch (T.A.C.) for the whole! zone will be the same as ini the 1979-80 season/The al-! location for New Zealand’s! fi-shermen has risen 23 per! cent from 83,000 tonnes in 1979-80 to 102,500 tonnes of, trawled finfish and bottom! longline fish. Announcing the alloca-' tions, the Minister of Fish-; eries (Mr Maclntyre) said that available data had shown i that the T.A.C. was the; level for maximum economic' returns without damage to; the resource. The concern for the long-1 term viability of all fbsh resources was the overriding factor in quota recommendations, and had also indicated ithe necessity of controls on the taking of some prime species, he said. The T.A.C. was allocated on the ba-sis of the domestic industry’s needs being served first, joint ventures next, and foreign licensed vessels taking up the residue. The estimated catch for

, joint ventures in the 1980-81| ■ season is 135,000 tonnes of , trawled finfish and bottom , i longline fish. Foreign licensed i ! vessels have been allocated ; 142,000 tonnes — 118,000 I tonnes for trawling, and 124,000 tonnes of bottom i longline fish. This is 24 per ! cent lese than the allocation •for 1979-80: (187,500 tonnes). ,1 The - of finfish ! for the season, April 1, 1980, |to March 31, 1981,. breaks 1 down as: New Zealand fish-t ilermen, 102,000 tonnes; joint /ventures, 135,000 tonnes; /foreign nations, 142,000; •! tonnes. j i‘ Only those new joint- . venture applications showing i i concrete benefits for New i Zealand, in addition to a re-| ■'turn of at least 5 per cent in ■: net foreign exchange earn--1: ings, would be considered, Mr' /Maclntyre said. !’ The forthcoming season /would see an insistence that > I joint ventures show more I New Zealand participation in -i manning and management, - he said. ; Joint ventures would be re- - quired to submit programmes 1 for the “New Zealandisation” i of their activities. This wmuld » include such activities as: —employment of New Zea1 landers aboard fishing ve*s2 seis; I ... —increasing New Zealand i equity in the company; - —increasing the risk taken; and rl—purchase of vessels.