ABSTRACT
Fisheries have long played a key role in the New Zealand identity. Before colonization, the Maori relied on the sea as a major source of food and developed complex management strategies to help ensure the sustainability of the resource. After the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, command-and-control management of fisheries eventually displaced traditional methods. By the 1980s, stock collapses and declining catches signalled it was once again time to change the New Zealand approach to fisheries management. Through a transformational series of reforms including the dismantling of command-and-control policies and the introduction of market-based instruments like a quota system, New Zealand was able to turn their fisheries from a marginal component of the economy to one of the top ten export industries while at the same time increasing the health of their fisheries to be recognized as one of the best-managed fisheries globally (Adler, 2010).
