Our History

When the QMS was established in 1986, all required registry services, including the management of catch and effort returns, were provided by the Crown (initially the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and later the Ministry of Fisheries). 

Ten years later, the Fisheries Act 1996 incorporated many enhancements to the QMS, which could only realistically be achieved with computerised processing, including:  

• Translating the quota property right into formal quota "shares", which once allocated are able to be traded and securitised. This was done using a system modelled on the land transfer system with a government guarantee of title.

• Calculating the Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE) as part of a new catch-balancing regime. ACE is generated each year, allocated to quota owners in proportion to the ownership of quota shares, and can be separately traded and used to balance catch, manage underfishing and in-season changes.

• Setting up formal registers and operational procedures.

• Mandatory reporting under the new catch-balancing regime.

• New revenue generation processes for cost recovery and calculating deemed value.  

Over the next five years, development of a computerised system was undertaken to enable the changes to be brought into force. During this time the existing QMS administration processes became increasingly complex and as a result difficult to keep error free. Notably, the existing systems did not have the capacity to allow new species to be brought into the QMS, which was a government priority in terms of its Treaty settlement obligations. 

In recognition of creating a significant administrative regime to implement the Fisheries Act, provision for the potential contracting out and devolving of services was provided through the Act (Section 294 and Part 15A). This process included defining what sort of services could be contracted or devolved and what the process and restrictions on that would be.  

Ahead of the government's decision in 1998 to allow for this outsourcing of fisheries services, an independent review was undertaken.

The review informed the final decision to allow for the devolution of services subject to setting appropriate standards and specifications and auditing. This reflected both the view that the private sector could administer data processing and registry services more efficiently than central government, and that the industry should pay for the cost of those services itself or through various cost recovery mechanisms. 

In 1998, Fishserve was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seafood New Zealand Limited (then SeaFIC). Unlike other Sector Representative Entities that Seafood New Zealand represents, it was established to not have a representative role. Instead it was established to perform agreed administration services to the Minister, Chief Executive of the Ministry and the seafood industry. Through the provision of these services Fishserve was expected to generate only sufficient revenue to operate and invest in future capital expenditure.

Consequently, Fishserve has not been required to and does not pay any dividend to its shareholder, Seafood New Zealand. You can find out more about our prescribed role and the services we deliver here.

Over the next three years, through Fishserve, the new QMS registry system was developed to enable registry and reporting functions of the Fisheries Act to be operationalised from 1 October 2001.

In August 1999 the Chief Executive of the Ministry used their powers under Section 294 of the Fisheries Act to contract out the delivery of most registry service functions to Fishserve, which at that time was partnering with Datacom.

In 1999 Fishserve, under the Service Delivery Agreement (1999 SDA) with the Ministry, started delivering existing services including receipt of catch and effort returns from commercial fishers.  

By September 2001, Fishserve had completed the design, build and test of a new QMS computer system, at a cost to the seafood industry of approximately $12 million.

The system was brought into operation from 1 October 2001, in line with the new registry processes, reporting regulations, and other relevant provisions of the Fisheries Act 1996.  

Fishserve then entered into a contract with the Ministry of Fisheries for the provision of the new registry services.

Given the new system was in place to meet the Fisheries Act 1996 provisions, from 1 October, SeaFIC was appointed under Part 15A of the Fisheries Act as an Approved Service Delivery Organisation (ASDO) for certain registry functions, initially for a five-year period and then in 2006 for a further seven-year period. SeaFIC contracted Fishserve to deliver the ASDO functions. 

Under the 2001 Registry Services Delivery Agreement (RSDA) Fishserve delivered services as reflected in the 2001 Framework. This included the receipt of all catch effort returns then prescribed in the Fisheries (Reporting) Regulations 2001 (FR Regs 2001) and more generally the management of all catch and effort data for the Chief Executive of the Ministry. It also included a range of registry services to collect Crown revenue and to administer fishing permits. 

The functions, duties and powers devolved and contracted to Fishserve were subject to detailed standards and specifications and agreed regular auditing mechanisms. Monthly and quarterly operational meetings ensured a close relationship with the Ministry of Fisheries to ensure process improvements were possible.

Changes to these services occurred through the next decade, including notably in 2004 to 2006 with the recording of settlement quota interests required under the Fisheries Settlement Act and the introduction of registration for fish farmers (aquaculture) and changes to high seas permitting.

In 2008 Bruce Shallard & Associates and Deloitte were appointed to undertake a review of the devolution of fisheries services.  

This review found that the devolution of registry services had enhanced the cost effectiveness of delivering registry services, borne out in the reduction in costs associated with service delivery over time (from >$8M to $4M over ten years). 

However, it also found that the benefits went beyond just cost effectiveness. The report concluded that the incentives on quality of service were greater in an industry-owned company than would be for the Ministry over time.

The tradable nature of the rights created under the QMS, means that each participant needs to rely on an error-free system to ensure their rights are protected. The ownership of Fishserve drives incentives to maintain system accuracy and compliance with operating rules to protect individual rights fairly across all participants. 

The efficiency, cost-effective and rights protection incentives that create benefits for both government and industry in Fishserve administering the QMS remain valid today.

In August 2013 Fishserve was appointed directly as an ASDO for a period of ten years in respect of certain devolved functions, duties and powers pursuant to the Fisheries (Transfer of Functions, Duties and Powers to Commercial Fisheries Services Limited) Order 2013. 

At the time that Fishserve became the ASDO, to ensure clarity on its policy neutrality as a business, changes were made to the company constitution. These included prescribing an independent Board Chair and limiting the potential appointment of Directors from shareholder, Seafood New Zealand, or industry groups. 

In September 2013, the existing RSDA was also replaced by a new RSDA – 2013 RSDA. The 2013 RSDA continued to include the previously-provided services and functions with the added requirements for performance reports as specified in the standards and specifications, an annual review by the Ministry of Fisheries and access rights for the purposes of audit.

Fishserve’s continual appointment as the provider for registry services was based on multiple factors including satisfactory delivery of services through an outsourced model for over a decade (meeting all required standards and specifications as evidenced through regular monitoring). 

Fishserve had also, given the incentive generated as a company owned by the commercial fishing industry, significantly reduced the cost of delivery of the administrative services over this time. 

Since 2013, Fishserve has continued to provide administrative services, both as an ASDO and under the 2013 RSDA to the Minister, the Chief Executive and the seafood industry. 

For many years it had been recognised that paper-based catch effort reporting by commercial fishers was inefficient and produced many data entry errors that could be avoided by reporting that data electronically.

The first step on this journey occurred in 2009 when the Fisheries (Reporting) Regulations 2001 (FR Regs) were amended to allow the existing returns to be made and transmitted by electronic software. 

In conjunction with the Ministry of Fisheries, but at Fishserve’s cost, computer software was developed to enable this implementation.  

In 2011, Fishserve released CEDRIC, a data entry platform for enabling electronic reporting, covering approximately 80% of the commercial landed catch.  

Between 2015 and 2016 Fishserve developed new software and systems to update and replace original computer systems that had been developed in the late 1990s. The new web-based Fisheries Management System was designed and built in close coordination with MPI to meet the standards and specifications set by the Crown for the ASDO and RSDA arrangements. 

By this time there was a strong desire by government and industry to move away from any paper-based reporting of catch effort to a fully electronic regime by all commercial fishers, this formed part of what had become known as MPI’s Integrated Electronic Monitoring and Reporting System (IEMRS).  

In early 2017, Fishserve was contracted by MPI to enhance its existing system to receive, aggregate, store, report and transmit to MPI’s IEMRS platform all defined data relating to catch information.  The contract costs were fully recovered from industry.  

This enabled the development of new technologies for the reporting and monitoring of commercial fisheries catch, including replacing the paper-based methods of reporting with electronic reporting. This led to the Fisheries (Reporting) Regulations 2017 (FR Regs 2017). 

While the new FR Regs 2017 came into force on 1 October 2017, the rollout of the Electronic Reporting System (ERS) was staged from 2017 to 2019. Initially, it applied only to the larger vessels that had already been using an electronic reporting system.  

In December 2018, Fishserve worked with MPI to implement secondary validation procedures to replace the existing paper-based validation procedures used by Fishserve under the RSDA so that ultimately all fishers could then electronically report. 

Smaller fishing vessels continued to use form-based reports until 1 December 2019, at which point mandatory electronic reporting applied to all fishers. 

Fishserve has developed the system, data and channels to deliver greater value to the sector through creation of tools and insights that support sustainable decision-making across Aotearoa New Zealand’s fisheries.

The new system has meant all commercial fishers now use a more direct and efficient electronic means of reporting their catch effort data. This has delivered cost and accuracy benefits and significantly improved the timeliness of data capture, while also allowing fishers themselves much quicker and easier access to their own data. 

The step change in the way catch effort data reporting works has opened up the potential for improving fisheries management in terms of responding to events in a meaningful timeframe. This is a result of the opportunities created by changing technology.

As technology continues to develop there will be more opportunities to derive benefits from the significant data now captured as part of the QMS administration system.