Fisheries research gets a boost

Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 4, 1 November 1991, Page 2

Fisheries research gets a boost

Alan Tennyson

fe HE ARRIVAL in July of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries’ new vessel Tangaroa could signal a new era for the conservation of New Zealand’s fisheries. Its arrival marks the end of seven years of departmental wrangling, which saw Treasury veto funding for the vessel several times. Surveys by the 70 metre, 2282 tonne, Norwegian built vessel will greatly improve information on rock lobster, squid and fish stocks, such as orange roughy and hoki. This should allow better management of our precious fisheries. New Zealand’s 200 mile exclusive

economic zone is the fourth largest in the world. In the past, fisheries research has been hampered by the lack of vessels with modern scientific equipment able to work in deep water down to 2000m. Serious depletion of orange roughy stocks may have been avoided with better research on the species and a more cautious approach from the Government in setting quotas. The Government is showing more concern for protecting New Zealand's fisheries by buying the Tangaroa. It has also been cracking down on widespread illegal commercial fishing activities, with

recent arrests in the rock lobster, paua, scallop, snapper and orange roughy fisheries. However, it needs to show far more commitment to marine conservation. There is an urgent need to integrate the wider effects of fishing on the marine environment into fisheries management. Additional exploited species, such as southern blue whiting, should be added into the quota management system, and the Government needs to take more notice of scientists’ warnings about over-fishing. Stopping the deaths of hundreds of fur seals and Hooker's sea lions, and thousands of seabirds should be central to fisheries management, as should research on the effects of fishing on complex marine food webs. The Minister of Fisheries’ September decision to increase the hake quota off the West Coast and east of the Auckland Islands, could see more fur seals, sea lions and seabirds killed by trawlers. One of the best ways of improving fisheries management would be to greatly increase funding for MAF’s scientific staff — particularly the observer programme, which largely monitors catches of foreign deep-water vessels. In all fisheries, the most selective methods of fishing should be encouraged — indiscriminate fishing methods like set-netting should be outlawed.