Officials keep secret details of fishing vessels that kill at-risk wildlife

Wednesday, 15 March 2023

Stuff's Andrea Vance and Iain McGregor investigate how the world's rubbish has been accumulating on one of our most isolated beaches.

Three commercial fishing vessels killed 12 of the world’s rarest and most threatened wildlife over a four-week period last spring.

Two hoiho/yellow-eyed penguins died after being caught by boat operating close to an area where set nets are banned. A year earlier, the same boat caught a young hoiho in the same location.

Eight flesh-footed shearwaters – a threatened seabird that appears on an international ‘red-list’ – drowned hooked on the long-lines of another vessel.

Another trawler caused the deaths of two endangered Hector’s dolphins. Four years earlier it had caused multiple deaths of the tiny marine mammal.

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After recovering from a massive population drop in the 1990s, hoiho are once again on the slide with only an estimated 5000 left.

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But Fisheries NZ won’t identify these vessels, arguing that the owners complied with fishing regulations, mandatory protection measures, and reported the deaths.

That’s because although it is illegal to harm a protected species, crews are exempt when birds or marine mammals are accidentally killed during fishing operations.

These deaths are classed as bycatch. The government has set a zero-bycatch target for 2050.

Last year, in a six-month period more than 400 seabirds, 27 fur seals, and 9500kg of coral were killed by longline and trawling vessels.

A single commercial fishing vessel killed three hoiho in one year.

Details released to Stuff under the Official Information Act, revealed the ‘significant capture events’ which were reported to ministers by FNZ.

The Hector’s dolphin is classified as Nationally Vulnerable, with a population of about 15,000, distributed primarily around the South Island coastline.

Earlier in the years, they were told of how 26 at-risk birds were killed on a single fishing trip, that a bluefin tuna fishing vessel killed 18 white-chinned petrels and Buller’s albatross over a four-day period, about the deaths of two endangered sea lions in a six-day period, and alerted when four dusky dolphins were killed by a vessel trawling for barracouta.

The hoiho – one of the world’s rarest penguins with only around 5000 left – were snared by the vessel on October 19 and November 9. The crew were targeting rig, or lemon fish, off the south-east coast of the South Island.

After the second death, the crew moved 10 nautical miles from the set netting prohibition zone.

A flesh-footed shearwater in a burrow in the Hen and Chicken Islands.

On learning of the captures, Department of Conservation and fisheries officials began considering if additional measures were needed to prevent further deaths, but are waiting on a scientific study due later this year.

Fisheries compliance director Niamh Murphy, Director Fisheries Compliance, Fisheries New Zealand said the vessel was using mandatory mitigation methods to reduce seabird deaths.

She said “reported and observed captures of penguins are relatively rare.”

The two Hector’s dolphin also died close to a netting prohibition zone, extended late last year to protect the dwindling species.

The trawler was targeting barracouta 16 nautical miles off Banks Peninsula on November 21. The same unidentified boat was involved in two capture events between December 2018 and February 2019 which caused the deaths of up to four Hector’s dolphins.

Murphy said officials met with the fisher and other crews working in the area.

“These captures occurred outside the closed area and there is no evidence or information to suggest the fisher was operating in breach of any regulations,” she said.

The flesh-footed shearwater, or toanui, nest on 15 islands around New Zealand and come ashore to breed in burrows. The species is considered threatened, with less than 12,000 pairs living here.

Eight were killed on October 28 by a bottom longliner working in waters north of Auckland, where the birds are known to forage.

Murphy said an in-port check showed the fishers were using two types of mitigation, as required by law, and these measures were compliant, she said.

None of the three vessels had an observer on board at the time of the deaths. Ocean activists argue when monitoring is conducted, bycatch of a protected species is nine time more likely to be reported, and say there is significant uncertainty over the true number of captures.

Murphy said the vessels would not be named for privacy reasons.

In the OIA response, the details were withheld from Stuff for reasons of “commercial sensitivity.” A complaint has been raised with the Office of the Ombudsman.

No action was taken against the fishing companies because they accurately reported the captures and no fisheries offences were identified, she said.

“It would not be appropriate for us to report names of companies and vessels for following the rules and reporting bycatch,” she said.

Fishing rules are being further tightened with new legislation passed last year to “incentivise better commercial fishing practices” and said cameras are to be installed on up to 300 inshore fishing vessels by 2024, she added.