Seabird plan ‘needs cameras’
All commercial fishing vessels will be required to have plans to ensure they avoid accidentally catching and killing seabirds, under a new action plan carrying a target of zero bycatch deaths.
But environment groups say the plan’s ambitious goals won’t be achieved unless the Government orders cameras on boats.
New Zealand is a global hotspot for seabirds; 145 of the world’s 345 species use our waters — the endangered Antipodean albatross and yellow-eyed penguin among them — and 95 species breed in the region.
It’s also home to more endemic breeding species than any other country.
But 90 per cent of them are threatened with or at risk of extinction — and it’s estimated up to 14,000 seabirds die every year in New Zealand’s commercial trawl nets and on longline hooks.
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage yesterday set out the National Plan of Action for Seabirds 2020, focusing on innovative solutions and education to prevent fishingrelated deaths.
It means that all vessels at risk of bycatch must have risk management plans for protected species, which will be audited and regularly monitored against Government standards.
“Seabirds are among the most threatened groups of birds globally,” Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said.
“Fisheries bycatch is one of the greatest threats to many of them, along with invasive predators, disease, pollution, a changing climate and associated environmental change.
“That’s why the focus of the action plan is to reduce seabird deaths from fishing bycatch.”
Nash said the plan would help develop measures to stop bycatch, while improving practices already in use.
“These include bird-scaring lines, weighted longlines, fishing at night, avoiding areas important to seabirds, and reducing discharge that attracts birds to fishing boats,” he said.
“Some innovative solutions are already being used. Many current measures have come from industry, who have the technical knowledge needed for workable solutions.”
Seafood New Zealand chief executive Jeremy Helson said the industry was already active in finding its own solutions, such as an underwater bait setter that puts hooks beyond the birds’ reach, with trials underway co-funded with Government.
“All vessels are required to have a plan to minimise seabird bycatch. “The industry has always recognised that this will place added pressure on the fleets but an improved environmental outcome is a goal desired by all.”
However, environmental groups argue the plan doesn’t go nearly far enough.
“Despite the legal obligation to do so, fishers don’t provide reliable data on what birds and other non-target species they catch,” Forest & Bird seabird spokesperson Sue Maturin said. “Only 12 per cent of the fishing fleet carry observers at any one time, so it is now imperative the rollout of cameras begin, or this plan to save NZ’s seabirds will fail.”