The Green Party is insisting on speeding up the instalment of fishing cameras to stamp out illegal practices.
In an announcement on Monday, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson says it's part of their 'Thriving Oceans' plan.
"We're pleased the Government's moving on this, but we need to go faster to protect our marine life," said Davidson.
"To speed up the process we would make financial support available to fishers to install cameras on boats, but only until the end of 2022. This would incentivise them to move quickly."
This comes after Newsroom published footage of a fisherman finning a great white shark alive - despite it being illegal to deliberately catch or harm them in New Zealand.
As Newsroom's source explained, the fisherman spoke about how he would fin them, throw their bodies - often still alive - back in the ocean, and get the product exported for extra money.
"Our plan would also review the quota management system in partnership with Māori, ban the most harmful fishing practices, and protect at least 30 percent of our oceans in marine protected areas by 2030," Davidson adds.
"We can't sit on our hands while our threatened species are at such a huge risk. The reports out today show once again we do more, faster, to protect our oceans."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shared her disapproval over the reported shark capture in a press conference on Monday.
"It is illegal and wrong," she said.
"I would be very keen for us to take action on that as soon as possible. We would however require extra information in order to pursue that."
Purposely catching a protected species in NZ can mean a potential $100,000 fine or two years in prison under the Wildlife Act.
But Newsroom's source had promised the shark-catcher anonymity, there was not enough information to progress an investigation and therefore charge him.
