Commercial Fishing in New Zealand

• New Zealand’s commercial fishing sector has built over the last 30 years.
• In the 1970s our fishing industry was largely an inshore affair.
• Offshore waters, beyond our 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea, were fished by the Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Soviet vessels.
• With the introduction of the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone in 1977 and the introduction of the quota management system in 1986, many New Zealand companies went on to invest in fishing vessels to fish the available catch and onshore factories to process the catch.
• The industry has also grown from being a predominantly domestic supplier to one of the nation’s leading export industries. In excess of 90 percent of all fish landed is exported.