Footage showing dead fish floating near Great Barrier Island has triggered an investigation by Fisheries NZ and renewed calls for tighter fishing limits from a local spearfisher who filmed the scene.
The video, posted to social media, shows multiple fish on the surface of the water. Fisheries NZ has since confirmed it has identified a vessel operating in the area and is reviewing the incident after receiving a complaint.
The spearfisher who recorded the footage, Darren Shields, said he immediately recognised what he was seeing. “I knew straight away what I was looking at,” he said. Shields said the incident was not an isolated case and reflected a longer-term decline in fish stocks he has observed over many years.
“We never did something when it was time to do something,” he said. “We’ve been allowed to take too much, recreationally and commercially, for too long…”
He linked population growth and increased fishing activity to mounting pressure on marine resources, arguing for moderation rather than exclusion. “The population is growing every year, and we’ve got more people going out on the water, wanting to catch a feed which they should be able to, but we don’t need to be able to take as much.”
Shields was critical of current commercial fishing practices, particularly bottom trawling, which he said contributed to environmental damage and bycatch.
“Take a little bit less, allow for these extra people, get commercial better at what they’re doing so they’re not bottom trawling,” he said.
He also opposed expanding the quota management system to additional species, arguing instead for stronger controls on destructive practices. “You don’t put it in the quota management system you stop bottom trawling, so you stop the destruction of the bottom and the catching of undersized fish and fish that aren’t in the quota management system.”
“You fix the problem, you don’t add to the problem.”
Fisheries NZ regional manager Andre Espinoza said officials were assessing whether any offence had occurred. “Illegal discarding of fish from commercial vessels is relatively rare because of the prevalence of on-board cameras on many vessels and because we are able to track the movements of vessels in near real time,” he said.
“However, we do receive complaints from time to time and follow up on each one.”
Espinoza said the review would include onboard camera footage, catch reporting and GPS vessel tracking. No breach has been confirmed at this stage.