Twenty at-risk birds killed on a single fishing trip

Thursday, 2 February 2023

For World Albatross Day 2020, Live Ocean presents: ‘Sentinel of the Ocean’ a story of the plight of the Antipodean Albatross.

A single boat killed 20 protected seabirds in one fishing trip – including one of the world's rarest.

The commercial vessel was fishing for southern bluefin tuna in May 2022. The crew had used mandatory measures designed to reduce seabird captures – but they didn’t meet legal requirements.

Commercial fishers have to file daily reports about what they have caught, which are then made public. But the crew’s account differed from that filed by a government observer who was on board for the eight-day voyage.

The fishing company – which Fisheries NZ has not identified – escaped prosecution.

* This Is How It Ends: Endangered young Antipodean albatross killed by foreign fishing vessel

* Fishing industry under fire for killing endangered albatrosses

Eight white-chinned petrels, three grey petrels, three Buller’s and Pacific albatross, one Westland petrel, and two white-capped albatross became tangled up in the vessel’s longlines and drowned.

Southern royal albatross on Campbell Island, one of only five places they are known to breed.

All are considered vulnerable, threatened, at risk or from a declining population.

A South Royal albatross also died. The species is classified as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. There are only about 27,000 adults.

The offshore vessel also snared two fur seals and a further four seabirds, but all were released alive.

The deaths were classified as a “significant capture event” by Fisheries NZ, and then-Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker was alerted.

A government observer was onboard while the crew fished off the east coast of the South Island, and also recorded the captures.

Vessels are required to deploy two out of three seabird mitigation measures. Regional fisheries compliance manager Howard Reid said the crew used tori lines (a bird-scaring device towed behind the vessel) and line weighting (so that baited hooks sink quickly beyond the diving range of seabirds).

But the observer raised concerns about the equipment. The tori line was 50m across and above the water, not the legally required 75m, and its ‘aerial extent’ (how much is visible outside the water) was not enough.

Some hook lines were also missing weights.

“In this instance, an observer was on-board and made recommendations to improve the vessel's by-catch mitigation,” Reid said. “The operators took these corrective measures, and we continue to work with them to ensure they understand their obligations.”

The discrepancy between the crew data and that of the observer was only registered when Live Ocean, the ocean conservation charity founded by Olympic medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, asked for details of the incident.

“The fishing operator had a technical problem with their electronic reporting equipment and were unable to submit ‘protected species interaction’ reports in real time,” Reid said. “They fixed this technical problem, and the correct and accurate reports were submitted.”

Breaching the regulations can earn operators fines of up to $20,000.

Naturally low productivity, changes in climate and habitat conditions, and certain fishing practices have made seabirds like the Buller’s albatross highly vulnerable.

“The company has rectified the concerns raised, and we’ve continued to work with it to ensure it understands and meets the requirements for avoiding bycatch,” Reid said.

A month earlier, another bluefin tuna fishing vessel killed 18 white-chinned petrels and Buller’s albatross over a four-day period.

An observer on board noted the crew were complying with mitigation measures. However, the skipper chose to keep fishing in the same area after the first day of captures, moving only after a second day of deaths.

In September, an endangered male New Zealand sea lion was found dead in a scampi trawl net. Six days later, a trawler killed another male while targeting southern blue whiting fishery.

Parker was also alerted when four dusky dolphins were killed by a vessel trawling for barracouta off Banks Peninsula in January 2022.

There are an estimated 12,000 to 20,000 of the dolphins in domestic waters. The trawl net was “likely” to be above the 50m depth recommended for trawl nets, a memo to Parker noted.

Fishing gear used by vessels poses one of the biggest threats to seabirds. Of seabird species 90 per cent, are threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened.

In 2020, the government pledged a review which would consider whether seabird mitigation rules would be compulsory – but that is yet to happen.

Domestic fishing regulations are weaker than those recommended in an international treaty, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), which recommends the simultaneous use of three mitigation measures.