Digital catch monitoring must be delayed, fishing industry says

Saturday, 26 August 2017

The fishing industry wants the new electronic fisheries catch reporting system delayed.

The fishing industry has called for a 'pause' before introducing electronic monitoring and reporting of fishing catches, saying the tight timeframes are unrealistic.

In a scathing submission to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), fishing industry trade association Fisheries Inshore New Zealand (FINZ) said it supported electronic monitoring and reporting, but called current plans: 'confused, unrealistic, onerous, unnecessary and costly.'

Industries Minister Nathan Guy has masterminded the new integrated fisheries reporting system.

'Our strong preference is to get this right, not muddle through to meet MPI's self-imposed and unrealistic timeframes,' said Jeremy Helson, chief executive of FINZ, whose members take around 84 per cent of the quota catch.

'Even if the legal requirements were well-specified and realistic, the technology to comply does not yet exist, has not been tested at sea, (but) is very unlikely to be installed on more than 1000 vessels and crew trained within the next six months,' he said.

Commercial fishermen currently report their catches through a cumbersome paper-based system. From April, all will have to report from on-vessel using digital technology.

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New Zealand currently has a 30-year-old paper-based catch reporting system, and Primary Industries minister Nathan Guy has ordered it be replaced with daily digital reporting from on fishing vessels.

Large trawlers must start reporting their catches digitally from on the water in October. Smaller operators must start in April next year.

But Helson said while some of the larger trawlers already had the technology to do electronic reporting, the smaller vessels, many of which were owner-operated, did not.

The technology could not be bought 'off the shelf', he said, and training fishermen to use it, once it was available, would be a challenge.

Training fishermen to be able to meet the reporting requirements would also be necessary, including preparing them to identify all the by-catch species they needed to report, though the industry believes only species that are threatened, or where there is a benefit to fisheries management, should be reported.

'Among the species that would be required to be reported would be items such as sea lettuce, seaweed, whelks, watercress, jellyfish and 15 species of crabs. It is neither reasonable nor appropriate to impose such a level of catch reporting on fishers when there are no foreseeable benefits to fisheries management,' Helson said.

The industry was asking for a 'pause' of around six months, and an opportunity to sit down with MPI and nut through the issues, said Helson.

It wouldn't be the first time MPI had taken a pause on an issue causing industry-wide concern.

Earlier this month, it announced it was 'pausing' in finalising its minimum standards for Manuka Honey, aimed at stemming fake honey leaving these shores for export markets, after criticism from the honey industry.

But MPI spokesman Joe Stockman said: 'We appreciate that this is a major change for the industry, and that there will be concerns about its impacts. However, digital monitoring, and the quick, accurate and verifiable reporting it provides is essential for the future of the industry, and the sustainability of New Zealand's fisheries.'

'The government then decided that it was the right thing to do, and the regulations were passed in July. Since then MPI has been developing the exact rules for how it will work for fishers on their vessels.'

He said the consultation process had highlighted some aspects of the rules that need to be changed to make the systems workable in practice.

And, he said: 'MPI has been working with potential providers of the technology for several months, and development is underway. We are confident that the project will succeed, and will deliver the benefits we're expecting. MPI has plans to get out and help inshore fishers put the new systems in place, and will be starting that process as soon as the final technical details are set.'

'Consumers are demanding that we can prove that our fisheries are sustainable, and this is a vital step for industry,' Stockman said.