Anger as MPI shares confidential review with fishing industry

Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Shane Jones launches fisheries reforms on Wellington waterfront.

Conservation groups are calling foul after officials shared a confidential report with a commercial fishing lobby group ahead of an international meeting.

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an umbrella group of NGOs, has long accused officials of advocating on behalf of industry at SPRFMO, an inter-government body in charge of regulating high seas fishing in the South Pacific.

The forum is meeting in Santiago, Chile this week.

Ahead of the gathering, DSCC has noted that the Ministry of Primary Industries passed a performance review to the High Seas Fisheries Group before it was made public by SPRFMO. It was not given to conservation groups or other stakeholders.

Both industry and eNGOs take part in the forum as observers, and make submissions ahead of the annual meeting.

This year, member countries are deciding whether to adopt new fishing rules, that would restrict bottom-trawling of seamounts, underwater mountains that are home to delicate, slow-growing coral, and sea sponges. New Zealand is the only fleet that continues to trawl in the South Pacific.

The Post revealed on Monday that the performance review was critical of New Zealand’s behaviour at last year’s meeting, when it vetoed the proposals, after originally sponsoring the new rules.

Diplomats said this was because of a change of government in 2023. New fisheries minister Shane Jones is an unabashed champion of the sector and is pushing for domestic deregulation.

Karli Thomas, an observer for DSCC, said: “The review was made public on January 22, when it was posted on the SPRFMO website.

“The HSFG cited it in their observer briefing on January 17, the deadline for which was January 18. So they'd have had it at least for a few days.

“One of the things that is really revealed by the review — aside from MPI's release of a confidential Regional Fisheries Management Organisation document to one group of stakeholders only while it was still embargoed — is that there are real issues around New Zealand's behaviour on both the fishery management side but also the governance/diplomacy side.

Just a handful of national fleets use the practice of dragging heavy fishing gear across seabed features, and New Zealand is the only country doing it in the South Pacific. Critics say it is destroying slow-growing coral.

“This review makes it clear that New Zealand is also disappointing other commission members with the way it is behaving…the cry of ‘new government’ at last year's meeting, as an excuse to block an already consensus-agreed measure, was a case in point.”

The Ministry for Primary Industries’ divisional manager of trade and international relations, Charlotte Denny, admitted HSFG was passed the review following a request.

“As the performance review would directly impact the New Zealand fishing industry, this was shared with them at their request prior to its publication on the SPRFMO website,” she said.

“At that stage our understanding was that it was going to be published shortly thereafter. When we were made aware this was not the case, we supported DSCC being given extra time to adjust their submission to include their reflections on the performance review.”

Members and observers are under strict instruction not to comment on the proceedings of the meeting, Andy Smith, chair of the HSFG, said. This limited what he could say.

“However, the HSFG has been very open that it regards the bottom fishing CMMs [Conservation and Management Measures] of SPRFMO to be unduly restrictive to the extent that commercial bottom fishing has been reduced to essentially zero over the last few years.

“Ultimately SPRFMO’s foundational charter documents require it to strike a balance between conservation of marine resources and the promotion of sustainable fisheries.

“The HSFG promotes pragmatic and workable amendments that realise this purpose. Notwithstanding this, it is HSFG’s long-held position that the pendulum has swung, and indeed has remained, too far in favour of the former consideration at the expense of sustainable commercial bottom fishing.”