MEDIA BACKGROUNDER - Issues for Seafood Industry Conference

18 May 2005 - Wellington

Contact: Kevin Hackwell, Conservation Manager, 04 801 2215 (w), 04 389 4815 (h), 021 227 8420
Barry Weeber, Senior Researcher, 021 627 329

What is SeaFIC?

The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council Ltd (SeaFIC) represents the main players in the fishing and associated industries: fishers, harvesters, the aquaculture sector, processors, retailers and exporters.

SeaFIC claims to be committed to sustainable development and the protection of marine resources.

SeaFIC is an industry owned company, funded under the Commodity Levies (Fish) Order 2002. It is managed by a board of directors who represent company shareholders.

What is Seafood Week 2005?

Seafood Week 2005, is the annual seafood industry conference, which will be held in Wellington from Wednesday 18th to Thursday 19th May.

Why is the conference relevant to Forest and Bird?

Forest and Bird actively campaigns for ecologically sustainable fisheries, marine reserves and the use of fishing methods that do not kill sea birds and marine mammals.

The sea food industry relies on fishing practices that are ecologically unsustainable, damaging to the marine environment and causing threatened sea bird and marine mammal species to decline.

Current issues relating to fishing

Recall of squid fishery vessels

On 6 May 2005, then Minister of Fisheries, David Benson-Pope directed the Ministry of Fisheries to place observers on all squid fishing vessels known to be not taking adequate measures to reduce seabird by-catch. The majority of the squid fleet that at its peak numbers 35 of the largest boats operating in New Zealand waters have therefore returned to port to pick up Ministry of Fisheries observers.

According to the Minister's media release, it is the first step in a package of measures David Benson-Pope is introducing to address a lack of commitment by the majority of the fishing industry to codes of practice designed to protect seabirds.

The majority of squid fishing vessels were found to not be using the measures that significantly reduce the number of seabirds that are killed during fishing, in spite of agreeing to do so. They were found as a result of surveillance by a New Zealand Airforce Orion.

Over 500 seabirds, including albatross and petrels, are killed in the squid fishery each year.

National Plan of Action to reduce seabird bycatch

All of the deadlines in New Zealand's National Plan of Action to reduce seabird bycatch have been missed by officials and the fishing industry. This brings the entire process into disrepute, undermines New Zealand's international reputation and will prolong the unnecessary slaughter of seabirds.

Moteuka stall incident

On Sunday May 15, five overall-clad men, who claimed to work in the fishing industry, ransacked a conservation information stall in Motueka. The stall was being run by Greenpeace and Forest and Bird and those staffing the stall were intimidated. Complaints have been lodged with the police. The stall was raising issues about the environmental impact of bottom trawling as part of the Deep Sea Coalition to which both Forest and Bird and Greenpeace belong.

How sustainable are New Zealand's commercial fisheries?

New Zealand's commercial fisheries are not ecologically sustainable. Last year, Forest and Bird assessed New Zealand's 62 marine fisheries and found that:

16 are over-fished or there has been a substantial decline in stocks
50 cause habitat damage
23 kill significant numbers of seabirds
28 kill a significant number of marine mammals
56 catch significant amounts of non-target fish
60 cause adverse ecological effects

Around half of New Zealand's fisheries are clearly not sustainable because they are over-fished, poorly managed, have high bycatch, damage marine habitats and/or have poor information about the state of the fishery. It is uncertain whether any of the remaining fisheries are sustainable.

What are the best and worst fisheries?

The best 12 fisheries are:
Pilchards
Anchovy
Sprats
Kina
Blue moki
Blue mackerel
Grey Mullet
Trevally
Garfish
Yellow-eyed mullet
Kahawai
Blue cod

The worst 12 fisheries are:
Orange roughy (worst)
Jack mackerels
Oreos
Turbot
Brill
NZ sole
Lemon sole
Flounders
Rig/lemonfish
Snapper
Spiny dogfish
Hoki

Consumer awareness is important

To help consumers make better choices about seafood, Forest and Bird analysed a huge amount of information and ranked fisheries in three colour categories:

- Green - relatively well managed, with low habitat damage and/or bycatch
- Amber - concerns about the status of stocks, fishing methods, habitat damage, management, bycatch or lack of knowledge
- Red - fishery has a lot of problems because it is over-fished, poorly managed, has high bycatch, damages marine habitats, and/or there is a lack of knowledge.

New Zealand consumers were informed that no NZ fishery ranked green. Forest and Bird was unable to show that any New Zealand fishery was well managed, with low habitat damage or bycatch and good information on the status of stocks.

Around half the fisheries ranked amber, meaning that there are concerns about these fisheries, or there is simply no information on which to make a robust assessment. The remainder ranked in the red and were clearly unsustainable.

What criteria did Forest and Bird use?

Forest and Bird ranked New Zealand's fisheries according to:

- status and sustainability of catches;
- fishing method;
- habitat damage;
- biology and risk of over-fishing;
- management and research;
- management plans;
- stock assessment information; and
- protected or threatened species bycatch such as seabirds or marine mammals.

Key issue 1: Bottom Trawling

Bottom trawling damages the ocean floor

Bottom trawling is a major threat to biodiversity of vulnerable deepwater habitats and ecosystems. Research has shown losses of 95 to 98% of coral cover on seamounts as a result of bottom trawling. Bottom trawling wrecks habitat and removes gorgonians (large deepwater corals), other corals and sponges that can be hundreds of years old.

Research published in 1997 looked at 73 tows and found that 82% of the orange roughy trawls in the study killed other marine life and that 96 species were directly affected. Marine life destroyed by the trawling included starfish, sea cucumbers, corals, shrimps, brittle stars and gorgonians. This is the marine equivalent of clear felling forest in order to catch kiwi for the BBQ.

Seamounts have high biodiversity values with a large number of species new to science.

Moratorium on bottom trawling on the high seas

The environmental impacts of high seas fisheries are generally unregulated. New Zealand is one of only 11 countries that are bottom trawling on the high seas.

A broad international coalition of environmental and conservation organisations has called for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling. This moratorium was supported by a number of countries at the recent UN consultation on the Law of the Sea.

Key issue 2: By-catch

New Zealand's fishing industry catches and kills a large number of unwanted animals, including rare and threatened seabirds and marine mammals. The industry has resisted the adoption of proper safeguards to prevent the deaths of marine mammals and threatened seabirds.

How many seabirds are killed by fishing in New Zealand?

Over 10,000 seabirds are estimated to be killed in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone every year as a result of commercial fishing. Precise numbers are unknown because most commercial fishing vessels do not have independent observers.

Why is New Zealand called the albatross capital of the World?

New Zealand is called the albatross capital of the World because 14 out of the World's 21 albatross species breed within New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone. Most are globally threatened with extinction.

What can fishers do to stop catching seabirds?

The measures are remarkably straightforward and New Zealand boats fishing in Antarctic waters already use them. The measures that reduce by-catch are:

- Fishers should not discharge offal from fish processing. The smell of offal is like a massive neon sign flashing "takeaways" and attracts albatross and petrels from huge distances downwind.

- Bird scaring streamers, called 'tori' lines, help to keep albatross and petrels away from the hooks during line setting and can also be used by trawlers.

- Thawed (rather than still-frozen) baits don't float on the surface before being pulled under by the main line and so birds don't get caught.

- Fishing at night, when most albatross are less active, reduces the numbers of birds that are caught. However this is not as effective for petrels, which also feed at night.

- Weighting the lines, which means that the baits sink more rapidly - quickly pulling the baited hooks below the birds' reach.

- Two observers on board ensures that these techniques are used and enable any seabird deaths are recorded.

How feasible is this?

New Zealand boats fishing in Antarctic waters have to comply with mandatory codes of practice to reduce the deaths of seabirds from long-line fishing. Even the Falkland Islands and South Georgia have managed to reduce seabird bycatch by over 90% through the use of compulsory measures.

Japanese tuna boats have 100% observer coverage and strict mitigation requirements. This has reduced seabird by-kill from 4,000 birds per year to under 20 individual birds. These requirements still do not apply to New Zealand boats. A New Zealand tuna fishing boat caught 300 seabirds in a single month.

So why do so few fishing vessels use these simple measures?

It appears that few fishing vessels use the measures simply because they do not have to.

Isn't the Government's National Plan of Action fixing this problem?

The National Plan of Action to Reduce the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in New Zealand Fisheries was announced in April 2004 and aims to address the serious decline in seabird populations (including albatross) that results from commercial fishing in New Zealand waters.

The National Plan of Action has relied too heavily on voluntary measures and does not require mitigation measures that have been proven to work in the Southern Ocean and in the Falklands and South Georgia fisheries.

All of the deadlines in the National Plan of Action's timetable have been missed. This brings the entire process into disrepute, undermines New Zealand's international reputation and will prolong the unnecessary slaughter of seabirds.

While New Zealand has internationally championed the new Agreement for the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels which entered into force in November 2004, as a country, we have failed to make the changes needed to protect albatross and other seabirds at home.

Sea lions and fur seals

Since 1980, the New Zealand squid fishery has killed over 2000 threatened New Zealand sea lions and over 2000 New Zealand fur seals. Between 1989 and 2000 over 6200 fur seals are estimated to have drowned in the West Coast hoki fishery as well.

Each year dozens of sea lions die a painful, terror-filled death in 150-200 metre wide trawl nets of the Auckland Islands squid fishery. Sea lion friendly fishing methods such as jigging would prevent this. Jiggers are a standard fishing method to catch squid which rely on bright lights, jigging machines and multi-barbed hooks.

New Zealand fishers have previously jigged around the Auckland Islands. Jiggers are used in the squid fishery around the Falkland Islands. There is no need to kill sea lions in the ocean around the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands because squid jiggers would largely eliminate the by-kill of sea lions.

Over 85 percent of the squid trawl catch is taken by foreign trawlers from Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Japan chartered to New Zealand companies.

Key issue 3: Unsustainable fisheries

Many of New Zealand's fisheries are over-fished. Examples include snapper, rig, oreos, hoki and orange roughy.

Snapper

Snapper is a very important recreational fishery which is under pressure from over fishing. The stocks on the West Coast of the North Island are well below the legal minimum population size.

The snapper fishery is expected to take between 14 and 30 years to recover to legal minimum biomass at current levels of fishing. Yet John Luxton, who was the Minister of Fisheries in 1998 planned to have snapper recover by 2008. Even then, snapper will only be one fifth of its original biomass. It is no wonder that recreational fishers are complaining.

Rig

Rig, like any other shark species, has very low productivity and can be easily over fished, especially where a fishery targets pregnant females. The Nelson and the West Coast rig fishery is well over fished. From the information available it is our assessment that the catch limit should be cut by at least 50 percent. Current catch limits exceed the amount of rig that fishers can find.

The rig catch rate in Tasman Bay/Golden Bay (area 038) has declined by 70 percent between 1989/90 and 2002/03. Commercial fishers can no longer even catch their allowable limit.

Oreos

Oreos are a long lived, slow growing, deep water species with biological characteristics and deep water habitat requirements similar to orange roughy. Oreos are vulnerable to over fishing. The current oreo catch in the Southland fishery is unsustainable. MFish's own stock assessment report for oreos in Southland concluded that catches 'are probably not sustainable.'

Hoki

In 2001 the Marine Stewardship Council gave hoki a sustainability accreditation against the advice of Forest and Bird. The MSC review panel in 2002 said that the hoki stock was in 'good shape.'

However, in 2004, the quota was cut from 180,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes. This followed an earlier cut from 250,000 tonnes. Last year's cut in quota means there has been a sixty percent reduction in the legal take of hoki in just four years. The hoki fishery is in serious trouble.

Orange roughy

Orange roughy fisheries throughout the New Zealand fishing zone have been reduced to low levels and two fisheries have had to be closed - one when it reached 6 percent and the other when it reached 3 percent of its 1980s size.

Key issue 4: Good players versus the cowboys

Some fishers are behaving responsibly. Japanese vessels chartered to Sanfords play by the rules. Some fishers are doing their best to avoid seabird bycatch. However, Forest and Bird has little confidence in the fishing industry overall because of the actions of a strong cowboy element in the industry.

Examples of the failure of the fishing industry to act as reliable partners towards sustainability include:

- On 7 June 2004, the Orange Roughy Management Company claimed there was little orange roughy fishing on seamounts. Yet research by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric, published in 2003, revealed that 60-70% of the orange roughy catch comes from seamounts. Fishing on seamounts destroys important natural habitats.

- Last year the Orange Roughy Management Company claimed that they did not fish outside of New Zealand's EEZ and were caught by Greenpeace doing precisely that.

- On 6 May 2005, the Minister of Fisheries David Benson-Pope directed the Ministry of Fisheries to place observers on all squid fishing vessels that did not have seabird bycatch mitigation measures in place, in spite of promises that the squid fishing industry made to the Minister.

- The industry has a record of misreporting catches and not reporting bycatch in the absence of Ministry of Fisheries observers.

- The recent ransacking of a conservation stall and intimidation of conservationists in Motueka by people claiming to be fisheries workers.