The daily bag and size limits for snapper changed at midnight last night.
Recreational fishers are waking up this morning to tighter daily limits for snapper caught off the upper North Island's east coast, including the Hauraki Gulf.
Their daily bag limit was cut at midnight from nine to seven snapper.
The fish must now also measure at least 30cm from the tips
of their noses to the V in their tails, up from the previous limit of 27cm.
But commercial fishing operators are still allowed to catch snapper as small as 25cm, to the concern of recreational fishing advocacy group LegaSea.
The group says the changes will hurt mum and dad fishers trying their luck in inshore areas where a high proportion of fish caught until now have been smaller than 30cm.
