SUPPORTING INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES

New Zealand is concerned about a number of fisheries outside our Exclusive Economic Zone.

These include toothfish fisheries in the Antarctic’s Ross Sea, and orange roughy fisheries in the Tasman Sea and the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They also include fish stocks that straddle the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone, and species like tunas that migrate through our waters from the central and western Pacific.

The government wants these fisheries managed sustainably. This means getting involved in international organisations that help manage these fisheries. As part of New Zealand’s contribution, the science group often arranges to gather information and provide advice.

The science group also helps with information and advice on managing the environmental effects of fishing in international waters.

The group’s present work areas include:

• Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) – providing information and advice to help set catch levels for tunas and billfish, and work on seabird, shark and turtle conservation issues;

• Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – providing information and advice to help set catch levels for toothfish, working out the risks to key non-target fish species caught, and global efforts to reduce the effects of fishing on seabirds and marine mammals;

• Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) – providing science advice, and helping improve our understanding of albatross and petrel numbers and population trends;

• Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) – providing information and advice to help set catch levels for Southern Bluefin Tuna, working out the risks to ecologically related species, and the develop a management procedure.

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) – providing information and advice on proposals to list marine species of interest to New Zealand.

• South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation – coordinating the scientific background information needed for this (in conjunction with scientists in Chile and Australia).

The science group has also been recently involved in listing basking sharks on the Appendices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).