Seafood industry keen to work with govt

Seafood industry keen to work with government for long-term solutions

26th January 2007

"We are looking forward to working with the government to find long-term solutions to address threats to seabirds in the surface longline fisheries," said chief executive Owen Symmans, in response to the Minister of Fisheries interim restrictions on the use of surface longlines.

"In consultation on the interim measures we expressed concern that they were not specifically targeted to the problems associated with swordfish longlining. We are keen to develop a package of long-term measures that is not constrained to focusing on surface longlining generically.

In particular, we remain concerned about the impracticality of providing at least 5 days notice of departure of a fishing trip to the Ministry of Fisheries. Multiple factors, including weather, affect the date of departure for these vessels and these should be taken into account when considering the longer-term measures for surface longliners."

ENDS

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