NZ increasing bottom trawled fish limits despite international rejection

Auckland, 29 July 2010 – Greenpeace says a plan to increase the catch limits of several bottom trawled New Zealand fish species highlights how out of touch the Ministry of Fisheries is with international markets.

The Ministry of Fisheries is proposing to reopen one of three closed orange roughy stocks that has not been fished since 2000 when overfishing drove it to collapse, to raise the annual hoki catch and to increase the catch of rubyfish, a deep sea species it admits it knows almost nothing about (1).

“There is no justification to trawl up more of these fish, especially as international markets are increasingly rejecting seafood that isn’t caught sustainably,” said Greenpeace New Zealand Oceans Campaigner Karli Thomas.

This week two US distributors have joined the growing number of companies in the seafood supply chain removing orange roughy from sale (2). Costco, which has 569 wholesale outlets, announced it would stop selling orange roughy and several other species that it said were “nearly universally identified as at great risk” (3). And on Tuesday San Francisco based ABS Seafood confirmed orange roughy and Chilean sea bass (toothfish) will no longer be stocked (4).

“The New Zealand Government should be supporting our fisheries that are based on healthy stocks and sustainable fishing methods with sound research and careful management” said Thomas. “It’s not the Ministry of Fisheries’ role to try and salvage market access for fisheries that are driving stocks to collapse, killing endangered species and annihilating marine ecosystems – that’s greenwash, not sustainability.”

Thomas said the management of New Zealand’s orange roughy fisheries was a scandal.

“The orange roughy stock they’re proposing to open for business again was grossly overfished to only three per cent of its original population before the Ministry finally stepped in and closed it. The indication that stocks have started to rebuild is a miracle of nature, not a testament to good management.”

Orange roughy live for more than 100 years and do not start reproducing until 25 to 30-years-old, making the species extremely vulnerable to overfishing.

Plans to decrease catch limits within a second orange roughy stock, and for black cardinalfish, were too little and too late, she said.

“The Ministry is failing in its obligation to protect our oceans, and hasn’t learnt from past mistakes. These fisheries, which are in obvious decline, should be closed immediately.”

Overall the ministry needed to be taking a more precautionary approach with all stocks and should not be rushing to increase the hoki catch based on a couple of good years recruitment.

“Instead of tackling issues like the industry’s heavy reliance on destructive bottom trawling, the Ministry is running around like it’s a fish marketing board, trying to prop open doors that are closing for seafood that doesn’t meet the sustainability standards of our export markets.”

Submissions on the Ministry of Fisheries’ proposed changes to catch limits close on Wednesday 4 August 2010.

Notes to Editor:

(1) The Ministry of Fisheries paper “2010 Review of Sustainability Measures and other Management Controls for Selected Deepwater Stocks” is open for public comment until Wednesday 4 August 2010 and available online at: http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Consultations/2010+Deepwater+Stocks+IPP/defa ult.htm?wbc_purpose=Basic&WBCMODE=Pr

(2) A summary of the market rejection of orange roughy is available online at: www.greenpeace.org/orange-roughy-rejection

(3) Costco’s recently announced ‘Seafood and Sustainability’ policy on is available online from: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83830&p=irol-govhighlights

(4) The announcement “ABS Seafood deepens sustainability commitment” was reported by Seafood Source: http://www.seafoodsource.com/newsarticledetail.aspx?id=4294997960

ENDS

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