Caught out: Cameras on boats reveal massive under-reporting of wildlife deaths

Sunday, 14 April 2024

A first glimpse of data from cameras on board commercial fishing boats has revealed what conservationists have long suspected: that deaths of ocean wildlife in nets and lines have been significantly under-reported. Andrea Vance reports.

Seven years after it was first announced as a way to revolutionise industrial fishing in the wake of a fish-dumping scandal and the accidental killing of thousands of seabirds, dolphins and sea lions, the Ministry for Primary Industries has published its first observations on footage captured from more than 100 vessels.

Ocean conservationists said the new data proved that for decades vessels had been under-reporting what and how much they were catching. They argue that armed with a more accurate picture of the impact the industry has on fish populations and protected species, the Government should be taking a more cautious approach when setting regulations and catch limits.

That’s not likely to happen under Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, a proclaimed champion of the marine economy. In a move that is only likely to rile environmental advocates, he has instead asked officials to look at ways to hand back control of the footage to industry.

Since the high-definition cameras were introduced last year, there has been a nearly seven-fold increase in the number of dolphins reported caught in nets.

Albatross interactions were up by 3.5 times what was previously reported. ‘Interactions’ is a catch-all term to include accidental capture or hooking of a bird when it dives for bait, hitting a line, or even landing on deck to snatch offal or bait.

Almost all interactions are regarded as adverse because they result in injury or lead to seabirds being attracted to vessels.

The data also showed an astonishing rise — of 46% — in the volume of reported discards. That’s unwanted fish thrown overboard because it is undersized or not valuable.

Currently, crew can legally return quota species to the ocean, but most fish returned to the sea don't survive. New rules, in force from 2026, means they will have to bring almost everything they catch back to port.

The fishing industry said the surveillance technology had simply made fishers “more vigilant”, and said there was enough contingency built into the fisheries management system to account for the inconsistency.

Separately, quarterly reporting data published by MPI last week showed six endangered Hector’s dolphins died in trawl nets in the first three months of this year.

Eyes and ears of the ocean

As of April 1, cameras are operational on 127 of 255 (or 50%) of vessels working in three areas. They went live in 38 vessels in the West Coast North Island trawl and set-net area — home to the world’s 50-or-so remaining Māui dolphins — last August.

In the South Island trawl and set-net area — key habitat for hoiho, one of the world’s rarest penguin species, and endangered Hector’s dolphins — cameras were switched on aboard 67 vessels from October.

And 22 surface longline vessels followed, across the country, in mid-January.

Footage has been provided to MPI division Fisheries NZ from 105 of those craft, showing 11,000 hours. Using random sampling, officials reviewed 3,733 fishing events.

But they’ve also used the camera roll-out to analyse reporting behaviour, which showed a significant jump in the number of incidents, as well as catch, and discarding.

“These are pretty stark figures, but they do reinforce what we have suspected all along: that fisheries by-catch is being under-reported by industry, and that we do not have an accurate picture of the threats that commercial fishing poses to our threatened species,” WWF New Zealand chief executive Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb said.

“That is significant. In part for the diminishing social licence of the commercial fleet for unsustainable fishing methods. But also because a lot of our fisheries management decisions in New Zealand are based on reporting.”

One such decision is the outcome of a review of regulations put in place in 2019 to protect seabirds, of which around 90% are threatened with extinction.

Commercial fishers using surface longline in domestic waters are required by law to either fit hook-shielding devices to their lines, or adopt two out of three mitigation methods. Those include bird-scaring lines (called tori lines), weighting lines or setting lines at night.

Conservation groups, including WWF NZ, Forest & Bird and Greenpeace, want to see all three methods deployed at all times.

Last year, in a briefing paper prepared for the previous government, Fisheries NZ officials were leaning towards a ‘spacial’ approach, whereby all three methods be required but only at certain times of the year, or in certain fisheries.

However, that advice was prepared before cameras went live, without the updated reporting data.

Forest & Bird strategic advisor Geoff Keey said the agency should now re-evaluate its opinion.

“The integrity of the fisheries management system really is based on the integrity of the logbooks. So if what the fishers are reporting is not what's happening on the water then that messes with the integrity of the entire fisheries system.

“Accurate reporting is essential for managing the risk to seabirds and marine mammals.”

The discrepancy also throws into question how officials calculate total allowable catch, Keey said. That’s the total quantity of each fish stock that is allowed to be caught (commercially or by recreational or customary Māori fishers), usually over a year, to ensure stocks remain sustainable.

“One of the things that MPI has to do when setting the allowable catch is to try and give an estimate of how much of the fish is actually being thrown overboard. And what we're seeing is a 46% jump in the amount of fish reported as thrown overboard.

“That difference is really important for working out how much is allowed to be caught.”

Ellie Hooper, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, said the new data proved it was worth the protracted, seven-year fight to implement the camera programme.

Former National Party minister Nathan Guy announced the roll-out in July 2017. But under the incoming Labour Government, the scheme was delayed several times because of opposition from NZ First.

The roll-out got back on track when Moana, Sanford and Sealord, the biggest seafood producers, broke ranks with the rest of the industry and declared support.

The first phase – on 32 vessels in the Māui dolphin habitat – was due to be finished by the end of November 2022, but then delayed by technical hiccups.

Hooper says the troubled scheme should be expanded to the deepwater fleet, which accounts for about 75% of the catch from wild capture fisheries.

The previous government committed $68 million to fit up to 300 inshore vessels with the cameras by next year.

“It really irritates me that we hear a lot of talk from the regulator and the commercial fishing industry about ecosystem-based management and informed decision-making. Well, you can't make informed decisions if you don't have the information.

“We can't have this much of an impact on the ocean ecosystem and then expect it for it to endlessly keep providing.

”Cameras are a really clear way for us to verify how much fish is caught, what was discarded, and what protected [species] were killed. You need that information because otherwise you're making decisions blindly.

“Unfortunately, it serves the commercial fishing industry to make those decisions blind, but it's not going to work going forward.”

Hooper might be wrong about that. Jones, who was opposed to the camera rollout, is unsympathetic to the concerns of “green politburo banshees”.

He has asked officials to examine whether the FishServe model can be expanded to the camera programme.

FishServe is an administrative company, owned by lobby group Seafood NZ, which collects data from fishers about the accidental capture of protected species, and checks catch reports and quota compliance on behalf of MPI.

Environmental NGOs have long argued this is regulatory capture — and that in order to prosecute fishing companies for law breaches, MPI has to rely on data collected and provided by a company owned by the industry.

However, successive governments have argued there is no conflict of interest in the outsourcing.

Jones said he had asked officials to do a “deep dive”, and pledged to consult with the public on any changes.

“I want to see whether options such as the highly successful FishServe model can be extended to the camera initiative. This is an example of the devolution of services under the Fisheries Act. The camera data must be seen as a sustainability tool, not purely as a compliance bludgeon.

“I accept though there is a problem with trust in the broader stakeholder community of fisheries. This will need to be addressed.”

Jones was particularly concerned about privacy in what was essentially government surveillance of a workplace - a concern shared by the industry.

“We have long supported greater transparency,” said Seafood NZ chief executive Jeremy Helson. “What we don’t want is to compromise fishers’ individual privacy or create a huge cost burden for the industry.

“We are keen on exploring intelligent camera systems and AI technology. Cameras can and should be used for more than just enforcement, we would like to see them helping with other aspects of fisheries management and data collection, so we can feel even more confident about our fisheries.”

The seafood industry netted record profits last year, pulling in $2.08 billion of revenue, up 8% on 2022. Officials told Jones in a recent briefing that around $5m a year (about half) could be recovered from industry towards programme costs.

Helson said deepwater operators would prefer a “robust” observer programme, where officials watch and record what is happening on board vessels.

“Observers can move around and see every aspect of operations on a vessel,” he said. “As well as monitoring the catch they are also responsible for collecting biological data, taking samples from fish, and other scientific work that helps make the fishery more sustainable. This type of work cannot be carried out by cameras.”

Helson said the data reported so far “is within what current models estimate, so these increases do not necessarily represent greater sustainability concerns”.

He added: “There may be some year-on-year fluctuations to consider here, but what we think cameras are doing is causing all fishers to be more vigilant about their numbers. This is a good thing.

“The regulator manages our fisheries using mathematical models built by scientists which produce estimated interaction numbers for protected species. These models allow for inconsistencies in reporting. These models scale up data from MPI observers, so they are representative of the full fishing fleet.”

The new numbers will further strengthen modelling and management of fisheries, he added.

Helson said consumers would welcome greater transparency. “We see this as a fresh start with everyone on the same page. It is a good thing to have increased transparency.”

He also said discard data needed careful interpretation. “Fishers are allowed or in some cases required by law to discard (maybe because the fish are small and need to be back in the sea or for some other reason required by law).

“This is not unlawful behaviour and in some cases discarding has to happen to comply with the law.”

Fisheries New Zealand deputy director general Dan Bolger said the increase of reporting was expected and in line with other countries.

“In developing fisheries management settings, Fisheries New Zealand collects a wide range of information from fishers, fisheries observers, on-board cameras, licensed fish receivers as well as peer-reviewed scientific modelling,” he said.

“The modelling takes into account multiple factors, including environmental changes and natural fluctuations in abundance. It does not rely on fisher-reported information about marine mammal interactions.”

Bolger said he remained confident in data collected by observers, through independent surveys, and peer-reviewed scientific modelling, and analyses, prior to the rollout of cameras.

“We welcome the information we are receiving through the camera programme. It has enriched our view of what is happening on the water. Verified fisher reporting and insights from cameras are expected to strengthen the information available to support management of harvested fish stocks and the effects of fishing on the environment.

“The programme is in its early stages and we will continue to recommend changes to fisheries management settings where it is supported by the weight of evidence.”

‘Significant interaction events’ are reported by MPI outside the normal cycle. They revealed that between January and March, six Hector’s dolphins, and one yellowed-eyed penguin, were snared in nets off Timaru and Banks Peninsula.

One bottom trawler caught two of the dolphin in one haul. Another killed nine birds in one go - eight sooty shearwater and a Foveaux shag. A purse seine vessel, which usually targets tuna or mackerel, captured six spine-tailed devil rays, of which only two survived.

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