Peter Scott, owner of Shark Dive New Zealand in Stewart Island, was aware of the announcement but said he had not read it and had ''no idea'' what conditions had been tightened around the permit.
''We can't have it any tighter than what we've ... got,'' Mr Scott said.
The shark cage diving season opened on Tuesday. Mr Scott said he had not received any correspondence directly to him about the tightening of conditions and he was unaware the permit had been ''renewed''.
''I've got a two-year permit and it hasn't been revoked.''
Mr Scott thought he would have received an updated permit by the opening day of the season but said, as it was the opening day on Tuesday, he was busy and had not had time to check, but correspondence should have been sent earlier.
Shark Dive New Zealand and Shark Experience, of Bluff, were both issued with two-year permits in 2014, which had conditions including a ban on feeding sharks, using decoys, controls on commercial filming, restricting operations to near Edwards Island and a review after 12 months.
Tensions on Stewart Island among locals were high, and opinions divided earlier this year, after claims the operators were attracting more sharks to the area and residents were encountering them more frequently.
''There's a lot of ideas around,'' Mr Scott said.
''We're trying to please a few people that we should probably tell to get [lost].''
Doc Southern South Island operations director Allan Munn said in the announcement Doc would be ''watching'' operators to ensure their activities were not harming sharks or causing increased risk to people.
''[Doc] has renewed the permits ... for the 2015-16 season, but with a number of changes. If [one of the operators] breaks the conditions again this season, they will lose their permit.''
The changes included increased monitoring of operations, tighter controls on bait and berley use and limiting operators to one vessel per day.
Doc chief science adviser Ken Hughey said staff monitored operators on five occasions last season, twice with staff in uniform and three times as plain-clothes, paying customers. He could not give an exact number of times operators would be monitored this season but it would be ''increased''.
Additional regulations had been added on ''attractants'' for sharks but he could not elaborate due to not having the regulations to hand when speaking to the Otago Daily Times.
Mr Hughey said he understood new permits had been issued.
''I'm not in a position to check at this moment [but] they have been issued as of today [Tuesday].''
Doc would review the permits again in August.
Shark Experience operator Mike Haines said he was too busy to comment.
