Mapping the Māori marine economy

These institutional structures place limitations on the commercial options available to Māori entities and create tensions between traditional economic forms of organisation and the contemporary corporate-beneficiary approaches.

Despite these constraints, the vast majority of Māori entities are engaging and succeeding in the marine economy.

The level of activity exists on a spectrum, from those engaged in Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE) trading and the development of joint ventures with third parties to fish quota, through to those actively fishing, processing, exporting, marine farming, and engaged in marine-based tourism.

As part of this project, people involved in Māori customary and commercial fishing were surveyed on their application of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) in fisheries:

• 71% of respondents indicated that mātauranga Māori is extremely important, but 64% rated the ability for Māori to exercise kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as limited
• Respondents rated profitability (84%) and ocean health (mauri o te moana) (86%) as equally important
• There was a surprising degree of awareness of ecosystem-based management (EBM) (82%) and more than half (56%) supported this approach

Regarding the growth and scale of Māori assets in the marine economy, Māori have acquired an additional $321 m in quota assets in relation to the $314 m in settlement quota. Māori have moved from owning 10% of New Zealand’s fishing quota to 20% of New Zealand’s quota by value. There is a significant cohort of innovative and growing businesses in the Māori marine economy, who are leading this growth.

The report includes a number of treemaps and other graphics to visualise the data.

June 2019