Fishing industry under fire for killing endangered albatrosses

Tuesday, 12 February 2019

The fishing industry is not doing enough to stop killing endangered seabirds, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage says.

Responding to a report that a longline fishing boat killed five critically threatened Antipodean albatross in the Bay of Plenty region in December and January, Sage said the industry needed to show leadership over the issue.

About 3700 breeding pairs of the albatross live on the Antipodean Islands south-east of New Zealand, but the giant seabird is under threat.

'The population is crashing, there has been a 12 per cent decline a year in females but we don't know the exact level of deaths,' Forest & Bird's seabird advocate Karen Baird said.

**READ MORE:

* Environment groups lambast fishing industry over bird deaths and sea floor damage

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Sage said the deaths occurred even though the fisher was operating within the existing fisheries regulations for reducing bycatch.

She said the industry could use innovations such as hook-shielding devices to cover the point and barb of the hook when longlines were set so seabirds cannot be hooked and drowned.

'Existing measures to reduce the risk to seabirds include weighting lines so they sink faster, setting them at night, and using bird scaring lines. Using all three together is international best practice but is obviously not enough,' Sage said.

The same fishing boat also caught a nationally critical Gibson's albatross, two nationally vulnerable black petrels, and one Buller's albatross were also killed. The deaths were recorded by a Fisheries New Zealand observer.

Nationally critical is the most the most serious category for threatened species.

The news follows a report on Monday that four Hector's dolphin were caught last year in a trawl net off the South Island east coast. The dolphin is one of the rarest in the world.

Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash said he was concerned at the reports of seabird deaths.

'I appreciate that the fishing vessel was operating within the rules. I acknowledge too that the skipper took further steps to mitigate risks of further captures by relocating to another area. However in this case it's clear that was not enough to prevent these seabird casualties.'

Baird said the albatross deaths were reported by an official observer, but only a minority of fishing boats had observers on board.

A few 'bad apples' were stalling the Government's Cameras on Boats programme, which would give a better idea of how many native birds and dolphins were being killed in nets and on lines out at sea. 

Baird singled out Talley's and Te Ohu Kaimoana, who are pressuring the Government to delay the programme.

'MPI have pointed out that the fishing crew were operating entirely within the law. It is abundantly clear that a system which allows endangered species to be killed as 'incidental by-catch' by the fishing industry is completely broken.

 'These albatross deaths are just the ones we know about. It is highly likely that many more deaths go unreported, and that New Zealand will be robbed of this majestic species by a few companies that only care about their own profit,' Baird said.

Seafood New Zealand said NIWA had demonstrated that the domestic fishing industry was not the main driver of the decline in albatross population, which was likely mostly caused by captures on the high seas - 'or potentially by unknown environmental factors'. 

The industry supported the DOC liaison officer project, which advises vessels on how to avoid further captures, as happened in this instance.   

The industry was working on a number of projects, including:

* Deploying 1800 hookpods on the surface longline fleet as part of a feasibility trial;

* Determining fishing gear sink rates to reduce seabird bycatch in the bottom and surface longline fisheries;

* Feasibility trial to assess use of electronic monitoring for black petrels in the bottom longline fishery;

* Feasibility trial for using underwater bait setters within the surface longline fishery.