Hoki catch. (Photo:NIWA)

Fishing sector questions report over catch misinformation

NEW ZEALAND
Tuesday, May 17, 2016, 03:00 (GMT + 9)

A study states that the total amount of marine fish caught in New Zealand waters between 1950 and 2010 is 2.7 times more than official statistics suggest, reaching 38.1 million tones. The difference is mostly attributed to unreported commercial catch and discarded fish account.

This study is part of an international collaboration between 400 researchers that sought to fill the gaps left by official catch data aimed at informing seafood industry efforts to become as economically and environmentally sustainable as possible. 

This landmark, 15-year “Sea Around Us” project run out of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, has revealed that fish of little or no perceived economic value have been routinely dumped at sea and not reported and that bycatch is common and unavoidable.

“To maintain sustainable fisheries and seafood businesses themselves, you need to know how much fish is being caught,” said lead researcher Dr Glenn Simmons, from the New Zealand Asia Institute at the University of Auckland Business School.

“There was already strong evidence that we didn’t know that, because the official statistics are incomplete. Unreported catches and dumping not only undermine the sustainability of fisheries, but result in suboptimal use of fishery resources and economic waste of valuable protein,” he pointed out.

The New Zealand results, which have now been published by the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, show that catch statistics that New Zealand and other countries report to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) do not include illegal or otherwise unreported commercial catches and discards. They also leave out or substantially under-report fish taken by recreational and customary fishers.

This study conclusions have been questioned by executives of Aotearoa Fisheries, who do not consider Glenn Simmons research “paints an accurate picture of fish stocks because it is based on old data and is not reflective of their current Quota Management System.”

“We take a long term view in everything we do and work in harmony with nature to ensure the sustainability of our fisheries for future generations,” stressed from Aotearoa Fisheries.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand researchers ensured they drew on an extensive body of documentation, including stock assessment reports, peer-reviewed literature, unpublished reports, and information obtained under the Official Information Act, as well as 308 confidential interviews with industry experts and personnel with first-hand knowledge of fishing and reporting practices.

These researchers stressed that since the Quota Management System (QMS) was introduced in 1986, the total catch is conservatively estimated to be 2.1 times that reported to the FAO and that unreported commercial catch and discards account for the vast majority of the discrepancy.

In their opinion, only an estimated 42.5 percent of industrial catch by New Zealand flagged vessels was reported and 42 per cent of the industrial catch was caught by foreign-flagged vessels, which dominated the catching of hoki, squid, jack mackerels, barracoota and southern blue whiting – some of the most misreported and discarded species

The study findings also reveal how the QMS, despite its intentions and international reputation, actually undermines sustainable fisheries management by inadvertently incentivising misreporting and dumping.

Further opposition to the Academics’ report came from Seafood New Zealand Chief Executive Tim Pankhurst, who accused it of lacking credibility.

“To base estimates on historical anecdotes, rather than on factual scientific records, does a great disservice to our internationally recognised sustainably managed fisheries”, he claimed.

According to the executive, the authors appear to be unaware of FAO’s requirements that Coastal States specifically exclude the reporting of discards and of catches from foreign flagged vessels when reporting catch statistics to FAO. The report includes scaled up estimates of both of these.

“This report, which relies upon anecdotal concerns masquerading as facts, would not meet rigorous independent scientific peer review. The sample is hopelessly biased. It includes interviews with 300 people, none of whom are named, and 200 of whom were crews on foreign chartered vessels complaining about their treatment,” Pankhurst pointed out.

The leader ensured that the Ministry for Primary Industries holds the official catch records from New Zealand’s fisheries along with independent observer audits of these records and that the authors of this report did not consult with MPI when preparing their report.

As part of his accusations, the Executive stressed that the sustainability of their key fisheries has been audited against the world’s highest standards under the Marine Stewardship Council’s programme and that the fisheries for hoki, southern blue whiting, albacore tuna, hake and ling are all certified as sustainable.

“Our fisheries management system is among the best in the world. The results from a fisheries governance study, presented at the 2016 Seafood Summit in Malta ranked New Zealand as one of the world’s top five best-managed fisheries,” Pankhurst concluded.

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