Fisheries Act 1996 (No. 88 of 1996).

This Act provides for the conservation, use, enhancement and development of fisheries resources while ensuring sustainability. This substantial piece of basic legislation on fisheries is composed of 17 Parts, sub-parts and 16 Schedules, entitled as follows: Preliminary provisions (Part 1); Purpose and principles (2); Sustainability measures (3); Quota management system (4): Declaration of quota management system, Quota management areas, Basis for allocation of quota, Personal catch history, Calculation of provisional catch history if no individual catch entitlement, Allocation of quota, Appeals, Overseas investment in and aggregation of quota, Order of transactions, Generation of annual catch entitlement, Annual catch entitlement required before fishing, Deemed values, Conclusive notification; Foreign licenced access (5); Access to fishery (6): Fishing permits, Special permits, Administration, Fishing vessel registration; High Seas Fishing (6A): Requirements as to taking of fish on high seas, Issue of high seas fishing permits, Compliance with conditions and regulations, Suspension and revocation of high seas fishing permits, High seas fishery inspectors, Administrative penalties, Other matters; Dispute Resolution (7): Statement of procedure, Fisheries Dispute Commissioners; Registration of transfers, mortgages, caveats, etc. (8): Administration, Transfers of quota or annual catch entitlement, mortgages of quota, Caveats, Effect of decrease in or cancellation of quota, Registration procedure, Acquisitions by operation of law, Correction of registers, Guarantee of ownership rights, Protection of purchasers, Compensation; Taiapure-local fisheries and customary fishing (9): Customary fishing; Aquaculture (9A): Aquaculture decisions in relation to aquaculture management areas, Fish farmers, Spat catching; Recordkeeping, reporting, disposal of fish, and provisions relating to taking and possession of fish for purpose of sale (10): Disposal of fish, When fish deemed to be taken or possessed for purposes of sale; Appointment of powers of fishery officers (11): Appointment of fishery officers, Powers of entry, search and questioning, Power of arrest, Power to give directions, Power to use reasonable force, Power to take copies of documents, Provisions relating to seizure, Provisions relating to seized property, Crown caveats, General powers, Provisions relating to exercise of powers, Examiners; Observer programme (12); Offences and penalties (13): Proceedings, offences, etc., Evidence in proceedings, Penalties, Minor offence procedure, Infringement offences; Cost recovery (14); Fisheries Administration (15): National Fisheries Advisory Council, Catch History Review Committee, Administration generally; Performance of Services by approved Organizations (15A); Miscellaneous provisions (16): Provisions relating to notices; Repeals, amendments, validations, savings and transitional provisions (17).
Schedules: Agreement for the implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks (Schedule 1A); Fishery management areas defined (First Schedule); Stocks whose abundance is highly variable (Second Schedule); Stocks managed with an alternative total allowable catch (Third Schedule); Highly migratory species (Fourth Schedule); Stocks and species subject to section 93 permit moratorium (Schedule 4C); Species for which quota to be allocated on basis of provisional catch history, if brought into quota management system on or before 1 October 2009 (Schedule 4D); Species in respect of which any person may own no more than 45 percent of combined total allowable commercial catches for New Zealand fisheries waters (Fifth Schedule); Stocks to which section 67A and 340A do not apply (Schedule 5A); Stocks which may be returned to the sea or other waters in accordance with stated requirements (Sixth Schedule); Minimum annual holdings of annual catch entitlement for the specified stocks (Eighth Schedule); Harvestable spat (Schedule 8A); Quota allocations for Jack Mackerel, Dredge Oysters and Northland Scallops (Ninth Schedule); Allocation of cost recovery settlement sum to each stock (Schedule 9A); Levies (Tenth Schedule); Bait (Eleventh Schedule); Enactments amended (Twelfth Schedule); Quota management areas for particular scampi stocks (Thirteenth Schedule); Scampi provisional catch history allocations (Fourteenth Schedule); Green-lipped mussel quota share allocations for quota management area 9 (GLM9) (Fifteenth Schedule); Allocation of quota for pipi in quota management area 1A (Sixteenth Schedule).