The management of foreign fishing in New Zealand's exclusive economic zone

Abstract

The Territorial Sea and Exclusive Economic Zone Act 1977 provides for the creation of an exclusive economic zone in the ocean surrounding New Zealand. New Zealand plans to exercise its option to create such a zone on 1 April 1978. The exclusive economic zone will give New Zealand control over and responsibility for the resources of a large area of ocean. New Zealand has controlled some of the resources in the zone - the resources of the seabed - since 1964 but not the resources of the water column. The major, new responsibility that New Zealand will assume is the management of foreign extraction of living aquatic resources in the zone. The task confronting New Zealand is to develop a set of management policies appropriate to the living resources of the zone, the law governing the zone and New Zealand's long-term objectives for managing its resources.

The three objectives of this report are to prepare a set of policies for managing the living resources of the zone, to examine the legal framework for managing these resources and to assess New Zealand's options for managing foreign fishing in the zone.

The first two sections of the report outline the history and extent of foreign fishing around New Zealand, physical characteristics of the zone, and the characteristics and yield of living resources of the zone. The third section selects nine, and rejects three, policies for managing living resources of the zone and discusses the reasons for their selection or rejection. The fourth and fifth sections discuss the international law and New Zealand law affecting the zone.

In the context of the selected policies and law outlined in preceding sections, the final section considers the spectrum of options available to New Zealand for managing foreign fishing in the zone. The report illustrates a rational planning approach to problems of resource management in New Zealand's exclusive economic zone.