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The head of the Maori fishing authority Te Ohu Kaimoana says new restrictions to save endangered dolphins will destroy livelihoods and could undermine promises under the Treaty of Waitangi.
The new rules will, from October, see extensions to areas where set-netting and trawling is illegal on the West Coast of the North Island, and areas in the South Island.
Under the 1989 Maori Fisheries Act the Crown agreed to give Maori 10 percent of all existing quota, and later 20 percent of the commercial fishing quota for new species.
But Te Ohu Kaimoana chief executive, Dion Tuuta, told our reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui the changes would clearly undermine the settlement.