Newsletter / Blog
2011-09-11 BirdLife speaks out on New Zealand seabird by-catch
BirdLife International has joined forces with its New Zealand Partner
Forest & Bird to remind their government there of its
responsibilities towards reducing the toll of seabirds in the country’s
fisheries.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Fisheries recently released a draft seabird
by-catch policy to replace a National Plan of Action for Seabirds. The
draft policy offers no concrete steps to reduce the by-catch of
seabirds, which in a risk assessment report done for the ministry is
estimated at between 22,200 and 40,900 annually within New Zealand’s
exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The risk assessment estimates 21 of the 64 seabird species examined are at risk from the level of incidental by-catch.
BirdLife International and Forest & Bird made a joint submission
to the ministry on the draft policy. BirdLife International’s Global
Seabird Programme head Dr Ben Sullivan said: “New Zealand has an
international responsibility to develop a National Plan of Action to
reduce seabird by-catch in its fisheries”.
The most at risk species is the endemic Parkinson’s Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni
– classified as Vulnerable by BirdLife on behalf of the IUCN Red List –
with the average number of potential annual fishing-related fatalities
estimated to be nearly ten times higher than the level that can be
sustained without risking extinction.
Although some gains have been made in deep sea fishing through
mandatory mitigation measures, inshore fisheries do not require
mandatory mitigation, observer coverage is low and potentially large
numbers of albatrosses, petrels, king shags and spotted shags may be
killed.
Squid trawling near the Sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands not only
directly kills New Zealand sea lions but also competes for their food
and this is believed to have contributed to the halving of the number of
pups since 1998. |