Far North iwi Ngati Kahu is refusing to abide by Government cuts to the snapper quota, saying it can manage its own fisheries.
From April, recreational fishers from the Bay of Plenty to the Far North on the eastern side of Aotearoa will have to catch bigger snapper and fewer of them.
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy on Tuesday announced the daily bag limit was reducing from nine to seven, and the minimum size of each snapper was increasing by 3cm to to 30cm.
Te Runanga a Iwi o Ngati Kahu chair Margaret Mutu said anything that interfered with its mana moana is not legitimate.
The iwi always made sure fish stocks were sufficient to look after its people, and had issued rahui, or fishing bans, when commercial fishers had depleted stocks, Dr Mutu said.
It welcomes the quota management system, which it believed had stopped a lot of that greed, but would not allow anyone to tell it how to fish in its own territory, she said.
