Washington Ocean Summit Told Of New Zealand’s Sustainable Fishing
New Zealand’s fisheries management has been cited overnight (3am 17th June NZT) at the international Our Ocean Summit in
Washington DC as an example of how best to fish sustainably.
Professor Ray Hilborn, Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, has
specifically identified “Alaska and New Zealand [who] have never really been subject to any significant overfishing
pressure” in comparison to other parts of the world.
Professor Hilborn emphasised to the international delegates that the status of fish stocks round the world varied
considerably, and the trend among developed countries over the past decade was to successfully rebuild overfished
stocks, such as in the North Atlantic, to maximum sustainable yield levels.
Seafood New Zealand’s Executive Chairman George Clement says Professor Hilborn is recognised as a world authority on
fisheries science management and his familiarity with the New Zealand Quota Management System (QMS) makes him well
qualified to single out the success of New Zealand fisheries management.
George Clement says that despite what he calls the ill-informed domestic criticism of New Zealand’s fisheries, other
countries are increasingly adopting fisheries management systems similar to New Zealand’s, which rely on scientific
information to regularly adjust what are safe limits of quantities to fish.
“There is no fish stock in New Zealand which is under any real threat from commercial fishing. The Ministry for Primary
Industries (MPI) has just this week issued a publication on the anniversary of 30 years of the Fishing Plenaries, which
is used to assess the stocks and set the QMS levels, and reduce them if there is a concern.”
MPI states in the publication, “by far the majority of New Zealand’s fisheries are performing well. There is a small
minority of fisheries which need to be managed better, but the trend is towards more and more of our stocks getting into
the optimum volume for a sustainable fishery and a sustainable fish population.”
The publication identifies a more than three per cent increase in the number of stocks during the past year, reaching or
above target sustainability levels, to 72.5 per cent.
George Clement says the preservation of the ocean itself is also a priority in New Zealand fisheries management.
“Since 2007, 1.1 million square kilometres of our Exclusive Economic Zone has been protected under a regime of Seabed
Closures and Benthic Protected Areas, where it is illegal to trawl or dredge the ocean floor. This protection, which
covers thirty per cent of our EEZ, comprises fifteen per cent of all the world’s Marine Protected Areas as recognised by
the International Union for Conservation of Nature.”
George Clement says New Zealand is also developing a practical and radical way of selective capture of fish through
Precision Seafood Harvesting, which catches the fish alive and allows undersize and non-target species to escape alive
and unharmed.
“It’s in the initial stages of commercialisation, but is just one of the ways in which we are maintaining our world
leadership in New Zealand.”
ENDS