Lifeline for Longfins

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New Zealand’s iconic endemic longfin eel (tuna) is in trouble.

The commercial fishery, as managed by the Ministry of Fisheries over the past forty years, has put pressure on a population already reduced by habitat loss* and degradation of water quality.

Very few large longfins are now found, sex ratios are badly skewed and elver numbers are greatly reduced from former times.

Eels breed only once, at the very end of their long lives. They must evade capture for the many decades - from thirty to a hundred years - it takes to reach reproductive maturity, before undertaking their epic migratory journey to the tropical Pacific where they spawn and die.

If there are too few tuna making it to reproductive maturity then the species population will collapse.

This petition calls on the Minister of Fisheries to place a moratorium on commercial fishing of the endemic, endangered longfin eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii) until such a time as it can be conclusively shown that such harvest is sustainable in the long term.

Add your voice; sign the petition and spread the word to everyone you know!

Names and contact details of signatories to the petition will be presented to the Minister of Fisheries at Parliament.

To print out a petition form, click here. 

*from swamp drainage and barriers to migration such as dams

So far 1703 people have signed a hard-copy petition.

So far 1205 people have signed this e-petition.

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