Hon Phil Heatley
Minister of Fisheries
9 September 2009 Media Statement
Enhanced powers to help seabirds

New, more flexible regulations coming into place on 1 October will allow the government to quickly put in place and refine mandatory measures for fishing vessels to avoid accidentally catching seabirds, Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley announced today.

The new regulation will allow for mandatory mitigation – steps vessels must take to avoid or minimise any accidental seabird captures – to be specified for particular high risk areas, high risk fisheries or for individual fishing vessels that are not doing enough to prevent seabird deaths.

“At the moment it is difficult to impose targeted measures on individual vessels or fisheries, the rules have to be applied as cumbersome and sometimes unfair blanket measures,” Mr Heatley said.

“Seabird mitigation technology is dynamic and technical in nature. Having to go through the full regulatory process every time we need to change specifications or put new measures in place is unwieldy and time consuming.

“The new system will give both the fishing industry and the government flexibility to use the best technology available quickly and where it can be most effectively used.

“This is good news for the fishing industry and good news for seabirds.”

--

Background
Commercial fishing vessels can sometimes accidentally catch or injure seabirds during their fishing operations. There is power under commercial fishing regulations to specify steps the vessels must take to avoid or minimise any accidental seabird captures.

There are several mitigation measures already in force, especially in deepwater trawl and longline fisheries that require fishing vessels to use bird scaring devices that frighten sea birds away from dangerous parts of the fishing vessel.

This includes devices to keep birds away from trawl warps (heavy steel cables used to tow nets) and baited hooks, and the use of weighted longlines so baited hooks quickly sink out of reach of diving birds.

Changes will be made to allow the chief executive of the Ministry of Fisheries to specify the types of mitigation measures fishers have to use by issuing an official notification called a “circular.”

There is already limited ability to issue circulars for some measures in some fisheries, and that is working well. Under the new regulations this power is to be expanded to all fishing methods and any mitigation measure including bird scaring devices and controls on the discharge of offal and fish trimmings, which can attract seabirds to dangerous parts of the fishing vessel.

Many fishing vessels in deepwater fisheries use vessel specific management plans that set out the types of mitigation that vessel has to use, including bird scaring devices and the management of offal discharge.

At present, if vessels do not comply with their management plan action has to be taken across the whole fleet. It can be difficult to successfully apply “one size fits all” sanctions when there are many different types and configurations of fishing vessel operating in fisheries at any one time.

For more information visit www.fish.govtnz

ENDS

© Scoop Media