Fisheries New Zealand (FNZ) is currently reviewing feedback on proposed seabird mitigation measures for surface longliners (SLL). Much of the media's attention on the issue has been focused on eNGO support for the mandatory blanket application of the '3 out of 3' model on all SLL - tori lines, line weighting and night setting in all circumstances.
Of course, Seafood NZ completely agrees there is a need to continually work towards reducing seabird bycatch in the SLL fleet. The industry adheres to all legislation and national plans of action such as the National Plan of Action - Seabirds and Mitigation Standards - to reduce our impacts on seabirds. Above and beyond this, fishers proactively seek additional, effective mitigations for high-risk fisheries. Here at Seafood NZ our inshore team has supported many vessels to implement mitigation measures, with increasing uptake across the fleet.
For example, with the return of several SLL fishers to the Southern Bluefin Tuna fishery on the East Coast of the South Island in 2021, the operators developed a Code of Practice (with Seafood NZ's support) for management and mitigation procedures, specifically for this fishery, to minimise seabird interactions. These included the use of hauling mitigation devices to actively deter seabirds from approaching hooks and dyeing all bait blue. The CoP was further refined in 2022 to ensure fishers as a group were aware of the collective on-water results.
The best results happen when regulations and mitigation methods are developed alongside those on the front lines - fishers, vessel owner-operators, licensed fish receivers and quota owners.
Fishers tailor mitigation methods to the fishery they are operating in, using different combinations depending on the region, time of year, and lunar cycle to mitigate the actual risks to seabirds that they have identified at sea. The key is flexibility for fishers to adapt to the prevailing circumstances and risks, not rigid and bureaucratic application of rules.
An update of the Seabird Spatially Explicit Fisheries Risk Assessment framework (SEFRA) has recently been published, but at the time of the consultation on the surface longline regulations it was not available. Seafood NZ recommended that Government not finalise any additional policy until that new information has been incorporated into the bigger picture.
We urged FNZ to develop any new regulations using the most up-to-date understanding of the risk to seabirds the updated framework will provide.
We want the best research and monitoring to guide the best policy so the fishers can get the right result. No two fisheries are the same - requiring a 'one-size-fits-all' approach for the entire New Zealand marine environment would not empower fishers to make conscious choices about the best combinations of mitigation measures for their fisheries based on relative risk. Any new regulations must allow for this innovation and the known heterogeneity of those fisheries to implement meaningful mitigation measures.
