Critically-endangered sea lion drowns in squid net south of New Zealand

Monday, 27 March 2017

A New Zealand sea lion female and pup in the Auckland Islands. They are critically threatened.

A critically-endangered female sea lion has been caught in a trawl net, in a squid fishery near the Auckland Island marine mammal sanctuary in the Southern Ocean.

The sea lion was caught only seven weeks into the squid fishing season, and despite assurances by the fishing industry and Ministry of Primary Industries that squid boats do not endanger the sea lion population, Forest and Bird said.

The female sea lion, not pictured here, was killed in a similar net trawling for squid.

An MPI report for the week ending March 19 showed one sea lion had been caught over 661 tows. Sixty four per cent of those tows were observed.

Forest and Bird Marine Advocate Katrina Goddard said this showed sea lion exclusion devices (SLEDs) did not work, although MPI and the industry continued to say they did.

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'What we do know is that sea lions are killed in trawl nets, and there is no evidence to show SLEDs don't just eject dead and injured animals, preventing them from being accounted for by official observers,' she said.

'New Zealand sea lions are critically endangered and without urgent action to reduce threats to their population, especially breeding females, we may be the last generation to coexist with this species.'

If a female sea lion was killed in a net by a SLED, her pup waiting onshore would also die, Goddard said.

If the ministry and the Department of Conservation were serious about saving the species, they should put a moratorium on trawling in the area next to the Auckland Island marine mammal sanctuary, until it was proved SLEDs worked, she said.