New Zealand's ecosystem approach to fisheries management

In 1986, New Zealand introduced a radical new quota management system ( QMS ) based on individual transferable quotas ( ITQ ) for most of its key fisheries. New Zealand's QMS focuses primarily on the management of individual fish stocks through the setting of total allowable catches ( TAC ) and total allowable commercial catches ( TACC , allocated as ITQ ) and is therefore essentially a single species‐focussed system. However, New Zealand's Fisheries Act 1996 is designed to ‘ provide for utilisation while ensuring sustainability ’ and the obligation to ensure sustainability has led to the introduction of many measures to deal with: incidental captures of protected species (primarily marine mammals and seabirds); benthic effects caused by bottom trawl and dredge gear; changes to marine biodiversity; and the protection of habitats of particular significance for fisheries management. Together with directed fish stock management, these measures could be considered to constitute a first‐level ecosystem approach to fisheries management. Many authors have advocated incremental or evolutionary approaches to the implementation of ecosystem approaches, and this paper summarizes developments in New Zealand since 1986 that build on the success of the QMS in this way.