Public submissions have been called for on the reserve application at Puketeraki in East Otago.
In June, the Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki applied to Fisheries New Zealand to create a 47.5sq km mātaitai reserve extending from Cornish Head to Purehurehu Point.
East Otago taiāpure management committee chairman Brendan Flack told the Otago Daily Times in July it would be "business as usual for pretty much everything" with the establishment of the reserve.
"The East Otago taiāpure was established in the 1990s, and at that time the boundaries were a little bit of a compromise ... for ease of management."
Now that mapping of the area had been completed, they found certain reefs they were looking to protect were bisected by the current boundaries.
He said the mātaitai reserve would give the opportunity to extend the area where pāua was reseeded, and to be more active in removing invasive seaweed without banning recreational fishing in the same way a marine reserve would do.
Commercial fishing was generally banned, but there were proposed exemptions allowing certain commercial activities to take place in his application.
Due to a postponement of a public meeting the proposal had not come back to submissions until now.
Eastern Boating and Fishing Club president Eric Boock said the club had no real concerns about the mātaitai reserve. There could be bylaws brought in by the proponents of the reserve, but they would have to go out for public consultation, Mr Boock said.
The mātaitai application is different from the proposal to have six marine reserves from the Waitaki River to Watsons Beach, near Milton, announced by the Labour government in 2023.
Submissions close for the Puketeraki reserve on December 5.
