Where to from here?
Since 2002, the Trust has been working with fishermen, the fishing industry, governments and NGOs to reduce seabird by-catch in southern hemisphere fisheries. Through skipper exchanges, workshops, educational resources and other activities we have focused our energies on working with fishermen – because we believe that fishermen hold the key to reducing seabird by-catch.
We feel now is an important time to take stock of what we've accomplished and to look toward the future of our organisation.
As part of this "refresh" we invite each of you to join us on 10 and 11 November in Nelson to share your thoughts on where and how the Trust can make the biggest contribution to solving seabird by-catch over the next five years both domestically and internationally.
Guest speakers at the event will include Professor John Croxall, Chair of BirdLife International's Global Seabird Programme, and Professor Carlos Moreno, Universidad Austral de Chile, who is a leader in Chile's efforts to reduce seabird by-catch.
We will be sending out invitations in the next few weeks to each of you, but wanted you to save the date so that you can join us at this important gathering.
If you're interested in learning more please contact Shelly at 04 801 7235 or shelly@biswell.net.
Fisherman snaps winning photo
Wanganui fisherman Cameron Long who works for Amaltal Fishing Company Ltd was the overall winner of the Trust's 2008 photo competition. A picture says 1000 words and as one of the judges said about Cameron's photo of a Salvin's albatross, "by capturing the strong downbeat of the wings with the one wing just barely grazing the water's surface the photographer was able to convey just how hard life on the ocean can be even in seemingly calm waters."
Peter Langlands of Christchurch won the open New Zealand seabird category for his photo of two Gibson’s wandering albatrosses in combat over fish remains five km offshore of Kaikoura. At the announcement ceremony, Peter thanked some of the fishermen – Henry Nee, Ted Forbes and Gary Melville – who have taken him out on their vessels over the years to photograph seabirds.
The young person’s New Zealand seabird category was won by Steven Hirst of Christchurch. In his photo he captured a black-backed gull in flight at the Christchurch Estuary. He's only been taking photographs of seabirds since December 2007, but the judges noted he already has the eye of a seasoned veteran.
The seabirds and fishing practices category was won by Greg Tinney of Hokitika. Taken in the Hokitika Canyon off of the West Coast, his photo captures a vessel using a mitigation device to reduce the accidental capture of seabirds while fishing.
Many thanks to our judges, ornithologist and Management Committee member Chris Robertson, renowned wildlife photographers Kim Westerskov and Rod Morris, and New Zealand Geographic’s editor, James Frankham. The photograph competition was sponsored by Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd, New Zealand Geographic, Te Ohu Kaimoana, and WWF-New Zealand. Special thanks to Te Papa for hosting the announcement ceremony.
Be sure to visit our online photo gallery to view some of the incredible photos we received for the photo competition.
Below: Salvin's albatross in flight by Cameron Long
Trustee speaks at NZ Seafood Conference
In May, Sanford’s Managing Director and Southern Seabird Solutions Trust Trustee, Eric Barratt, gave New Zealand Seafood Conference attendees an update on the activities of the Trust.
Below we’ve included an excerpt from the last part of Eric’s speech as he discussed some of the future goals of the Trust.
Looking to the future, Southern Seabird Solutions is keen to help inshore fleets achieve fleet-wide seabird safe practices. Whatever interventions the government makes, there will always be a need to support fishermen through training, information, and recognition for their efforts. We also intend working with the recreational fishing sector to help them start taking some simple steps to safeguard our seabirds.
Overseas, South Africa continues to be a high priority – the NZ white-capped albatross that breeds on the Auckland Islands is the most commonly caught seabird in South Africa. Because our fishing methods are similar we can work together, not re-inventing the wheel but leveraging our joint knowledge and experience. We are setting up an industry exchange with a New Zealander heading over there to look at their operations and pass on what we’ve learnt here.
Another project on the Trust’s books is establishing a simple step-by-step process for fishermen and other inventors when they have a new mitigation idea. We’ve had a number of situations in the past where people have developed prototype ideas that have great potential. Sadly they tend to fizzle out, because inventors don’t know who to talk to or how to fund the development.
The Southern Seabird Solutions partnership model has a lot going for it and could be used to solve other environmental issues. It relies on trust, development of a common goal, and a real willingness by all parties to listen to each other and accommodate each other’s needs. Environmentalism is an evolution, not a war. If the industry and New Zealand primary producers as a whole wish to strengthen our sustainable brand image, we need to get better at working together.
New SITO seabird resource available
Recently Southern Seabird Solutions Trust teamed up with the Seafood Industry Training Organisation (SITO) to produce a learning resource on seabirds and seabird by-catch reduction. The resource has been developed for new recruits, as well as people already in the fishing industry – from skippers to factory managers to crew members. The learning resource covers topics such as the ecological, marketing and economic consequences of accidentally killing seabirds, and ways to avoid these interactions.
Funding for this learning resource was provided by the Ministry of Fisheries. The resource is available on SITO's website.
Do you meet the standard? Below are questions based on some of the information provided in SITO’s new learning resource. Test your seabird knowledge:
1. How do albatrosses and petrels find food? (other than following fishing vessels!)
2. How much freshwater do albatrosses and petrels drink in a lifetime?
3. What are the main actions a pelagic longline fisherman can take to avoid catching seabirds?
4. Does an increase in the death rate of juvenile or adult birds have the biggest impact on albatross and petrel populations?
5. How can observers benefit fishermen?
6. What mitigation device originally used by longliners has been found to be effective on trawlers?
Solutions in te reo Mâori
Recently the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Te Ohu Kaimoana funded a te reo Mâori version of the Trust’s series of seabird fact sheets for children.
Alan Riwaka from Te Ohu Kaimoana who also serves on the Trust’s Management Committee says that Mâori are important players in commercial, recreational and customary fishing, and adds, “if we want to have seabird-safe fishing practices in place we need to get these messages out to our young people – our future.”
Alan says he quickly discovered that direct translations don’t always work. “In the same way that there are a variety of common English names for different species of albatrosses, so there are many different Mâori names for various seabirds. Plus, there are a number of key concepts in the fact sheets that needed to be explored and explained from a Mâori viewpoint if they were going to be relevant to a Mâori audience.”
Te Ohu Kaimoana has recently printed copies of the fact sheets and distributed them to kura kaupapa (Mâori-language immersion schools) throughout the country. They will also soon be available on DOC's, Te Ohu Kaimoana's and the Trust's website.
Making the Australian connection
Earlier this year, Australia’s South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association (SETFIA) held a forum to take a close look at seabird by-catch and other types of by-catch within their fishery. Richard Wells, Associate of Clement & Associates works with the Deepwater Group Ltd and is a member of the Trust’s Management Committee, was invited to share some of the lessons learned by New Zealand’s deepwater fleet regarding by-catch.
Richard says, “Many of the things we have needed to deal with over here are applicable to what they are grappling with in their fisheries. Solving the by-catch issue requires industry to be proactive. As we have learned in the deepwater fleet that means honesty, transparency and persistence. It also requires support, not browbeating, from owners and government.
“It would be great if I could have gone to Australia and told them we have got this whole issue sorted, but that’s just not the reality. Instead what I was able to do was talk about some of the things that seem to be working well – and not so well – in the deepwater fisheries. In the end, other countries may learn as much from our challenges as they do from our successes.”
One of the positive outcomes from the forum for Steve Bolton, Manager, Co-management Programme, Australian Fisheries Management Authority, was to discover that many fishermen are already taking steps to reduce by-catch. Anecdotally it appears that some of these actions are working, but most of these efforts haven’t been well documented. Steve and his team plan to work with fishermen to identify some of these recent changes and more systematically test their effectiveness.”
Steve adds, “Paul McCoy, a fellow Australian, and I came over to Southern Seabird Solutions Trust’s Inshore Fisheries Workshop last year and we both recognised the power of getting fishermen into the room with government representatives, scientists and NGOs to work on solutions to by-catch together. SETFIA’s forum had a similar feel and I think there is a will to hold similar forums in the future.”
News briefs
Seabird by-catch autopsy report released
A summary of autopsy reports for seabirds killed and returned from observed New Zealand fisheries 1 October 1996 – 30 September 2005, with specific reference to 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05 was released in May as part of the Department of Conservation’s Research and Development Series. This report reflects only seabirds killed and returned on observed vessels.
A summary of the report states that in the nine years between 1 October 1996 and 30 September 2005, New Zealand government fisheries observers returned 4055 seabirds incidentally killed aboard longline and trawl vessels.
The birds returned represented 44 taxa, with 6 taxa making up 86.3% of returns. Birds were received from squid, scampi and fish trawlers (47.4%), domestic bottom (demersal) longliners (34.9%) and pelagic tuna longliners (17.7%). During these nine years, white-chinned petrels (n = 947), white-capped albatross (n = 876), sooty shearwaters (n = 711), grey petrels (n = 533), Salvin's albatross (n = 247) and Buller's albatross (n = 184) were the most commonly returned of the 44 taxa. For each fishing type and fishery, a few of the fishing vessels were responsible for catching more than 80% of the birds returned for autopsy. Bird body condition (based on fat scores) declined over the nine years of returns.
The full report is available on DOC's website.
Measures introduced to reduce seabird by-catch in New Zealand
In February 2008, Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton announced a suite of measures to protect seabirds from being accidentally caught when commercial vessels are fishing.
For surface longlines the measures include a mix of using seabird scaring devices, line weighting and night setting. The rules are similar for bottom longlining, but also include a restriction of offal or fish discharge while setting and hauling.
In mid-August the new measures for trawl vessels (both 28+ metres and less than 28 metres) regarding offal management were revoked in response to fishermen’s concerns about how the new rules affected the stability and safety of some vessels.
The deepwater trawl fleet (vessels over 28 metres) is still required to use a mitigation measure to keep seabirds away from trawl cables. In the inshore trawl fisheries (vessels less than 28 metres) there are currently no regulatory seabird mitigation measures in place.
MFish is in discussions with the industry and environmental groups on possible mitigation measures in the trawl fisheries.
Mandatory form to make incidental catch reporting more realistic and uniform
New Zealand's commercial fishers will soon be reporting incidental catches of seabirds, marine mammals, marine reptiles, protected fish species and corals, sponges and bryozoans under a new mandatory system designed to collect more accurate information.
From 1 October 2008 fishers will complete a new reporting form — designed in collaboration by the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council, the Ministry of Fisheries and the Department of Conservation.
Commercial fishers are required to report incidental catches of marine mammals and marine wildlife under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 and the Wildlife Act 1953. However, until now there has been no mandatory, uniform mechanism for them to do so.
From October, all commercial fishers will be required to state on their catch effort returns whether they have caught any non-fish or protected fish species, and if so, to give details on the new Non-fish/Protected Species Catch Return (NFPSCR).
For more information visit www.fish.govt.nz.
New book explores the ways of albatrosses
Albatross: their world, their ways by Tui De Roy with Mark Jones and Julian Fitter has just been released. The book is both a celebration of albatrosses and also a call for their preservation. The book features 400 stunning photographs along with insightful first-person writing, a natural history section with detailed information on each albatross species, and essay contributions by leading international experts.
One of the essays in the book features Southern Seabird Solutions Trust and was written by Janice, along with John Bennett a longline skipper with Sanford Ltd and Caren Schroder previously from WWF-New Zealand. The essay discusses the Trust's model of conservation through cooperation.
The book will be available worldwide and includes a foreword by HRH Prince Charles and an introduction by conservationist Carl Safina. Published by David Bateman Ltd.
To find out more contact The Roving Tortoise Worldwide Nature Photography at books@rovingtortoise.co.nz.
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