February 2016 was our 4^th anniversary. As of that time, we had spoken to 167,432 people, from 150 different clubs, groups and organisations at over 200 events. That’s at events alone.  On top of that, we have committed to getting the word out to a broader audience by publishing monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly updates in various magazines such as NZ Fishing News, NZ Bay Fisher, New Zealand Fishing World, NZ Fisher e-mag, Fishing in Godzone, The Adventurer newspaper and The Westhaven Boat Club newsletter.

We had made over 25 fishery submissions on fishery management issues.

Through the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council we made substantial submissions in 2016 –  check the link for more info: http://www.nzsportfishing.co.nz/index.cfm/PageID/477/ViewPage/2016-Submissions

What has been very exciting are the industry supporters outside fishing who have been coming on board.  Most notably ITM. They have come on as Platinum sponsors (2 yrs) and are getting more and more into the fishing space (I.E you will notice they are now co-sponsors of the Simrad Nationals).

LegaSea was at the ITM Pukekohe Race event a few months ago where we had video and other collateral messaging going out. The person playing a pivotal role in ITM coming onboard was Matt Watson, who has been with us from the beginning.

Our partnership with Hunting and Fishing is also thanks to Matt’s involvement.  LegaSea strongly supports Matt’s Free Fish Heads project and we have recently been doing some grass roots work with a local boating club and Marae to help distribute unwanted fish heads and frames to the community. This is going along nicely, we're very excited about this initiative. We will have more news on this developing story early in 2017.

NZ Fishing Ltd – Hooked / Kiwi Sizzler brands have said yes and have recently donated BBQs for promotional purposes.  CD rods/Okuma also came on board, awesome to see as they join other tackle brands such as Shimano and Daiwa (who incidentally we did a joint project with, our Legends Supporters got the opportunity to be Daiwa Tackle Testers a while back).

Black Magic/Wasabi are onboard boots and all – recently branding some of their new rods with LegaSea and donating a portion of sales to LegaSea. Big thumbs up to them. (Really nice rods too by the way) We will be giving away some tackle bags on our Facebook page in the coming weeks, maybe like us/subscribe to go in the draw? Inox have also donated product for promo purposes (distributed by Nacsan, another tackle company).

Club Power are now one of our Gold partners, we have almost finalised a deal where a generous amount money from people signing up with them via LegaSea will come back to LegaSea.

Other staunch (Platinum) supporters are Rod and Reel (with brands Patagonia, Umpqua, Reddington, Rio, Fish Pond and Sage) and the Salt Fly Fish operation (based on Waiheke Is). You may have also seen Clark Gayford from Fish of the Day on FB behind us.

This year we exhibited for the first time at the On Water Boat Show. We attended in an educational capacity and reached out to lots of people there. The Hawke’s Bay A & P Show in October was successful and LegaSea Hawkes Bay  did a good job in educating and signing up more people to receive LegaSea information.

Seen helping out at the LegaSea Hawkes Bay stand was David Ashby from the Recreation and Game Fishing Facebook group (10k+ members). We have been growing ties with another FB group, NZ Fishing Community (16k+ people, founder Ben Chissell), we recently collaborated with them to facilitate and promote the give a little campaign for the families who lost loved ones in the recent Kaipara boating tragedy.

Earlier this year we were at the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron at their open day, helping with a kids fishing competition. Yamaha, Wave Dancer, Honda Marine, Mustad, Club Marine all get a shout out for their support too, not to mention the boys at Marine Deals, Chesters Plumbing, Fuel 360 and did I mention Burnsco and Hutchwilco? 

Since I have started, I will have to add: Fishing Advisor (Mandy Kupenga), Boating Outdoors, DB Export, Jarvis Walker, NZ Fishing News, Top Catch, this forum website The NZ Fishing Website and Sopers Macindoe…

On the club front we have been deepening our ties with the NZACA (NZ Angling and Casting Association) They have been very supportive of the cause, also putting in some of their own submissions on fishery management issues.

The financial support we have been receiving has also helped employ 3 new people the last 12-14 months. I have come on as Community Builder, I have been managing the social media for LegaSea, also providing images for media purposes from my library and shooting/producing short promo videos. Sam Woolford has come on with the focus of grant seeking to help keep the wheels turning. He’s been contributing some excellent strategy ideas to projects like Fish Care and a webinar series to help explain and tackle the complex fishery management issues and inform the public. Paul Brislen, a media specialist, has embraced the movement and has been instrumental in helping us develop our strategy for change in the media/political landscape.  Josh Barclay shifted down to Wellington this year and helped spread our presence further abroad but he’s also taken over doing more of the content writing work for publications. I won’t show case all the old hands even though the likes of John Holdsworth and company deserve a lot of respect for their contributions (see more here - https://www.legasea.co.nz/about/team/ )  As a side note related to running costs/resources, our corporate sponsors help with the direct costs of running LegSea. All public donations go to the NZ Sport Fishing Council who then distribute the money into advocacy, education and research.

So, we’ve been going almost 5 years. We have kept growing and started to become a trusted authority / go-to organisation on fishery management issues (where it affects recreational marine fishing) for radio and TV/media.

Last year was a land mark one in terms of defining what rec fishing is worth to NZ in dollars and cents. $1.7B in economic activity is generated through recreational fishing. Rec fishers have never been able to quantify our value to the economy and now we can. If rec fishers take 6% of the harvest and generate that much money, how much would 12% generate?

If you have a look at what we have been doing, and who have been gravitating to our cause, you will see we are becoming more main stream. As I have already stated, this is a process akin to creating diamonds – the diamond of abundance will be produced from the time and pressure of those who are working hard to create it.

Like what you see or simply want to keep an eye out to see how we’re advancing the cause ? Then please subscribe - https://www.legasea.co.nz/subscribe/ or send your feedback directly to LegaSea at [email protected] .