The controversial Fisheries Amendment Bill has been shelved following more than 33,000 public submissions against it, the second-highest count in New Zealand history. Fishing advocate and ITM Fishing Show host Matt Watson says the result is “about as good as we possibly could have expected.”

The bill proposed to reduce penalties for overfishing quotas, remove minimum size limits on fish, and loosen restrictions on the commercial sector. It was written without consultation with recreational fishers, iwi, or conservation groups.

“The bill, that was never asked for by anyone or campaigned on by any political party, came out of nowhere,” Watson says.

“It was the seafood industry that had gotten together with the minister and said, ‘We want all of these changes.’

“It was a shopping list for the seafood industry – ultimately they needed all of that because they’re fishing in a depleted fishery that’s been overfished.”

The campaign consumed 20 to 30 hours a week on top of his regular work.

“I said to my wife, ‘I have to do it. This can’t wait.’

He says the number of submissions and amount of pushback showed that Kiwis could see how unfair this piece of legislation was.

“The fact that if the ocean’s not good, and they’re going to lose that ability to take their children to the sea and catch a fish, and all of the memories and goodness that comes with that, really cut through.”

He says politicians on both sides are now engaging in ways they had not before.

“We’ve got this massive opportunity now where we’ve got an election coming, and all the parties know they’re going to have to have a good fisheries policy because the public have made it an election issue.”

He says no party has yet produced policy he considers adequate, but both sides are asking the right questions.

He says the most destructive fishing methods should be phased out rather than banned immediately, guided by science.

“We’re the only nation in the entire Pacific that allows bottom trawling on seamounts, which is a pretty shameful statistic.

“We’ve gone this far, and now if we can put that same energy that we’ve put into stopping us moving backwards, we can help it move us forward.”

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