We Are Not Separate From the Moana, So Why Are We Managing It Like We Are?
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
OPINION PIECE: By Michaela Insley
Minister Shane Jones has proposed, massive, sweeping legislative changes to fisheries legislation, including removing minimum fish size limits for commercial fishers, impacting important, community sustaining species such as snapper, moki and tarakihi.
Across Aotearoa, communities are already seeing changes in the health of our ocean life. What’s harder to find, what’s smaller, what’s not showing up like it used to. Coastal communities notice these shifts because we have always been in relationship with the moana.
And that’s what’s missing in this conversation.
We continue to talk about “managing resources,” when for many, this is about relationship.
Species like kingfish and snapper are not just stock, they carry whakapapa. They are part of identity, practice, and intergenerational knowledge systems that have sustained both people and place for generations. And those relationships are already under pressure.
The proposed laws will apply to “almost all species in the Quota Management System (QMS), including snapper, trevally, butterfish and tarakihi. One of the exceptions will be kingfish, which commercial boats will still be required to release if under 65cm in length.
Across the motu, communities are doing the work to reconnect, restoring knowledge, strengthening kaitiakitanga, and creating pathways so future generations don’t have to start from zero. This is happening despite increasing barriers like access, cost of living, and systems that make it harder to stay connected to the natural world.
So when changes are proposed that place even more pressure on our oceans, it is not just an environmental issue, it's another strain on something already fragile.
This is not just about fish. It is about the ability for communities to sustain themselves, to know their environments, and to uphold their role as kaitiaki. It impacts all people in this country who are trying to live in relationship with the natural world, not simply extract from it. If we continue to treat the moana as something separate from us, something to maximise rather than care for, we will continue to see decline, not just in ecosystems, but in connection.
We are not separate from the moana, so why are we managing it like we are?
The Fisheries Amendment Bill is far worse than we imagined. If passed these changes will leave generational changes, forever changing the way we fish. This will further undermine sustainability and fail to ensure healthy oceans and abundance, for future generations.
Now is the time to act.
Advocacy and collective voices really matter right now - and we need you to speak up and be heard.
We encourage everyone who cares about our oceans to share this kōrero and contact your local MP.
We cannot let this Bill pass the first reading in Parliament, into the Select Committee stage. Once it goes to the Select Committee, no meaningful changes can be made to the Bill.
You can find your MP and their contact details here. Please write to them, phone them and visit them to let them know this is not OK. This is not us. And this is not a future we want.
