Sustainability decisions for the 2006/07 fishing year

 download as a PDF (58.23 KB)

The Minister of Fisheries has made decisions on fishstocks in the October 2006 sustainability round. Decisions will be gazetted in time for the start of the 1 October 2006 fishing year, and a full decision letter will be provided to stakeholders in the near future.

The summary of the decisions is as follows:

Low Knowledge Stocks

The Minister has decided to adjust total allowable catches (TACs), total allowable commercial catches (TACCs), allowances and deemed values for a number of stocks, using an average of landings over the past seven years, plus 10%; The Minister’s decisions on specific stocks are:



Orange Roughy (ORH 1)

The Minister has decided to withdraw the Adapative Management Programme(AMP) for ORH 1 and:
i) Reduce the TAC for ORH 1 for the 2006–07 fishing year to the pre-AMP level of 840 tonnes, and within that TAC;
- Set a 40 tonnes allowance for other sources of fishing-related mortality, and zero allowances for customary Mäori interests and recreational fishery interests;
- Set the TACC for ORH 1 at 800 tonnes;
- Request industry to implement a structured fishing plan to spread catch and effort across four sub-areas of ORH 1, with sub-area catch limits of:
• Sub-area A reduced from 200 tonnes to 125 tonnes; with a 100 tonnes annual feature limit;
• Sub-area B reduced from 500 tonnes to 275 tonnes; with a 150 tonnes annual feature limit;
• Sub-area C reduced from 500 tonnes to 275 tonnes; with a 150 tonnes annual feature limit;
• Sub-area D reduced from 200 tonnes to 125 tonnes; with a 75 tonnes annual feature limit;
• Retain the ORH 1 bycatch-only limit for the Mercury-Colville ‘box’ at 30 tonnes;
• Retain the unstandardised CPUE thresholds for feature limits from the current AMP;
ii) Implement 100% observer coverage of all ORH 1 fishing trips and all fishing in the Mercury-Colville ‘box’;

Orange Roughy (ORH 3B)

The Minister has decided to reduce the TAC for orange roughy in ORH 3B from 13,335 tonnes to 12,075 tonnes for the 2006–07 fishing year, and within the TAC:
i) Set an allowance of 575 tonnes for other sources of fishing related mortality;
ii) Set zero allowances within the TAC for customary Maori and recreational fishery interests; and
iii) Set the TACC at 11,500 tonnes;
The Minister has decided to set the following designated sub-area catch limits within the TACC:
i) Northwest Chatham Rise to be reduced from 1,500 to 750 tonnes;
ii) East Chatham Rise to be maintained at 7,250 tonnes; and within the East Chatham Rise to allow Deepwater Stakeholder Group (DSG) to establish catch limits that recognise sustainability concerns for:
- the “Spawning Box’ fishery at 4,000 tonnes during the spawning aggregation months June through August;
- the Northeast Hills fishery at 200 tonnes;
- the Andes Complex fishery at 700 tonnes;
- with the remainder to be distributed about the North-eastern Flats and Spawning Box outside the spawning months (June through August);
iii) South Chatham Rise to be maintained at 1,400 tonnes;
iv) Arrow Plateau to be reduced from 1,000 tonnes to 0 tonnes, acknowledging:
- the declining fishery interest in the Arrow Plateau (60 tonnes harvested in 2004-05); and
- the DSG initiative to designate much of the Arrow Plateau as a BPA with prohibitions on bottom trawling;
v) Sub-Antarctic to be increased from 1,300 tonnes to 1,850 tonnes including a specific feature limit for the Priceless region at 500 tonnes;
The Minister has decided to seek Industry support for implementation of the catch limits for ORH 3B by way of voluntary agreement; and
i) Acknowledge the objectives and operational implementation of the Deepwater Fisheries Management Agreement prior to the 1 October 2006 fishing year and each year thereafter;
ii) Request that annual updates and specific DSG annual agreements that pertain to the ORH 3B fishery be submitted to MFish;
iii) Request that monthly monitoring reports pertaining to catch levels by ORH 3B designated sub-areas be submitted to MFish;
iv) Request that MFish be notified when catch reaches 80% of the feature limits, and also be notified when any feature limit has been reached;
v) Request that DSG work with MFish Science group to develop and present a stock assessment research programme for the Sub-Antarctic.

Paua (5A)

The Minister has decided to:

· leave the TACC unchanged at 149.98 tonnes; and

· require that an appropriate research programme be undertaken to remedy the current deficiencies in the stock assessment information; and

· Noting that the industry has agreed to implement their proposed integrated package of management measures, include a 45 tonne catch reduction and effort spreading.

Rig (SPO 7)

The Minister has decided to set a TAC of 279 tonnes for SPO 7 and within that TAC set:
i) a customary allowance of 15 tonnes;
ii) a recreational allowance of 29 tonnes;
iii) an allowance of 5 tonnes for other sources of fishing related mortality; and
iv) a TACC of 221 tonnes.

Alfonsino (BYX 1)

The Minister has decided to retain the status quo AMP arrangements in the fishery for a further two years, that is:
i) TAC for BYX 1 of 304 tonnes, and within that TAC:
- Maintain a 2 tonnes allowance for customary Maori interests and 2 tonnes for recreational fishery interests. No allowance has been set for fishing related mortality;
- Maintain a TACC for BYX 1 of 300 tonnes;
- A maximum of 60 tonnes to be taken per 1o square of area;
ii) Maintain existing AMP reporting and review requirements:
- Bycatch management provisions;
- Completion of logbooks;
- Annual review of performance indicators;

The Minister will encourage industry in writing to improve compliance with AMP information requirements.