Shane Jones drops plan to scrap legal fish size limits after backlash

There’s been a major backdown from New Zealand First’s Shane Jones over plans to remove almost all minimum legal-size limits for commercial fishing operators. Both his party’s leader, Winston Peters, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on X that they spoke to Jones and told him the section scrapping size limits in the Fisheries Amendment Bill needed to go. Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has been forced into a U-turn The U-turn follows a public backlash over the issue, including from TV fishing host Matt Watson, who said the plan was “outrageous”. Jones said he had to listen to the concerns raised by his boss, and said Peters didn’t want the whole bill tainted by “one relatively small issue”. Jones said he also spoke to Luxon, who opposed the scrapping of size limits. Asked who exactly made him change his mind, Jones said he “had to listen to the rangatira, the New Zealand First leader”. As revealed by the Herald on Friday, the scrapping of size limits was a clause buried in the Fisheries Amendment Bill which was published online last week. The proposal would have allowed commercial vessels to land and sell baby fish, including snapper, terakihi and trevally. Watson accused Jones of introducing rules to benefit his “mates” in the commercial sector – a claim Jones has denied. In his post on X, Peters said, “we believe in democracy, and the most important part of democracy is listening to the people”. Meanwhile, Luxon wrote that he too had concerns about the plan. “As a recreational fisher, I share Kiwis’ concerns on the impacts to juvenile fish stocks.” Luxon said his conversation with Jones about the matter was “constructive” and it was important the “most egregious” part of the Bill has been removed. He said the plan to scrap size limits hadn’t been made clear, resulting in serious concerns from recreational fishers. Luxon urged the public to have their say on other controversial aspects of the Bill to “make it even better”. Act Leader David Seymour called it a “great day” for small snapper and recreational fishing. He said the details about scrapping size limits was “hidden” in legislation and once he learned of it, he made his concerns known. The size limit changes follow multiple controversial reforms that remain in the Bill. These changes include plans to block the public from obtaining footage of fish dumping under the Official Information Act. Other changes set to go before a select committee include giving quota owners the right to carry forward an increased amount of uncaught catch into another fishing year; more flexibility to dump unwanted catch at sea, and a reduced ability for fisheries decisions to be challenged in court. Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at theHerald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.

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