It’s being claimed the fishing industry has failed to keep its promise of protecting dwindling stocks of tarakihi.

The popular fish are now down to 15 percent of their original levels, with Forest and Bird saying voluntary measures aren’t working.

Those measure, include moving on when too many undersized fish are caught, and completely avoiding areas juvenile tarakihi are known to inhabit.

A letter from Fisheries Inshore executive chair, Laws Lawson, makes it clear that many boats are failing to comply. A

An update from fishers to the new Fisheries Minister David Parker in December admits progress in some areas has been sub-par.

Forest and Bird’s Geoff Keey, told fisheries reporter, Conan Young, that isn’t good enough.

Fisheries Inshore’s Laws Lawson says fishers strayed into closed areas 40 times over a 12 month period, representing 1.1 percent of trawl activity over that time.

He says the two trawlers that failed to move on had in fact moved, just not as far as they were supposed to.

He noted fishers had met all but two of the six key performance indicators set for them.