Research project title:
A review of the impacts of commercial fishing on NZ marine environment
Aim to review:
The impacts of commercial fishing on the NZ marine environment including (marine) species caught but not targeted by commercial fishing (by-catch):
- by catch
- species caught with targeted fish species
- fishery practice
Abstract:
In 2016, research was conducted by Lincoln University to study public perceptions of New Zealand’s environment. According to the public perception data, commercial fisheries has 78.0% of perceived cause of damage in marine fisheries sector to the environment. (Hughey et al., 2016) This shows an undeniable issue faced in the marine environment. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) has recently released a discussion titled “your fisheries – your say” which targets commercial fishers that aims to improve the management of New Zealand’s commercial fisheries. However, what are the impacts of commercial fishing on NZ marine environment? How does it impact 1. Bycatch 2. Species caught but not targeted 3. Fishery practices? How do people perceive the impact on these areas in NZ marine environment? How will the MPI discussion help in tackling those issues? This research project is aimed to review the current issues faced with commercial fishing in these areas in order to gather findings of the questions to determine the effectiveness of the proposed 3 options by MPI. This will help identify which of these options benefit NZ marine fisheries.
Aim:
Identify answers on what are the impacts of commercial fishing on NZ marine environment, commercial (marine) fish stocks and other (marine) species caught but not targeted by commercial fishing (by-catch).
Method:
The methodology used is a qualitative research reviewing available literature and research investigating the impact of commercial fishing analysis of available literature/research on issues faced from commercial fishing to identify answers for questions 1-3 according to how the proposed 3 option by MPI could solve or not.
Problem statement:
With the increase of population in New Zealand, the economy has grown with cumulative GDP growth of 50.7% since the year of 2000. This has resulted in an increase in production, consumption and intensification of some activities in Marine Fisheries which in return, puts pressure on Marine fisheries.
Introduction:
Fishing in New Zealand has been a tradition by the Māori before the European settlement. The marine area is very large compared with the land size. During the 1960s, New Zealand’s 12 nautical mile terrestrial waters were invaded by foreign vessels such as Russian, Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese trawlers, which led into the establishment of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in 1977. (Walrond, 2006) New Zealand got the advantage of outer islands and the Chatham Islands making its exclusive economic zone the sixth largest fishing region across the world. (The zone establishment helped New Zealand because the nation’s inshore fisheries had been exploited. New Zealand fishing companies formed joint ventures with other foreign fishing firms. Trawling crews from advanced states trained the New Zealand fishermen how to harvest fish in deep ocean points and in return, they got a share of the fish harvested. The 1980s fishing industries had developed and gained momentum. The fishing sector continued to expand rapidly, and soon it became overcapitalized due to very many fishing boats. This has led to the establishment of the Quota Management System (QMS) since fish stock were not harvested sustainably. The Quota Management System makes New Zealand fisheries to be recognized globally as the best-managed fisheries. In the 2000s, New Zealand’s fishing industry developed and shifted from being domestic suppliers to commercial exportation (Walrond, 2006).
Although the fisheries management system in New Zealand is “world leading”, a recent scientific study by a US-based National Academy of Science have debunked this claim. The claim highlights that there is a lack of scientific data available to run the QMS. (Slooten, 2017). A study done by Dr. Simmons (2016) in The University of Auckland has estimated that the real New Zealand catch is 2.7 times more than reported. Simmons calls for the need “to focus on how to provide truly sustainable fisheries management, maximizing long-term profits and minimizing environmental impacts”. Moreover, he emphasized on the importance of providing incentives for fishers to use sustainable fishing methods and ensure that all fish is brought back to shore, rather than some of it ending up being dumped to the sea.
According to the Public Perception of New Zealand’s Environment (2016) survey, the state of the New Zealand perceived by people was done to address certain gaps in the management of the environment by testing New Zealanders’ perception of all the main resources areas. This helped identify the roles of several socio-demographic variables (Hughey et al., 2016) One particular area of interest was the perceived quality of Marine fisheries receiving the largest number of ‘don’t know’ response, this is probably due to the fact that Marine fisheries are usually out of sight and certain issues are not address properly which this essay is going to address later on. Moreover, the state of Marine fisheries was rated as being in the worst state. This is because Marine fisheries is currently suffering from a huge perceived damage from commercial fishing causing 78.0% of damage, not only that, Hughey et al. (2016) highlighted that commercial fishing is perceived to cause damage to Marine reserves as well. This shows a clear issue and gap in the sector of fisheries management causing adverse damage to marine environment in which the literature review is aimed to review.
Literature review:
Summary of sources:
Analysis and Discussion:
Themes covered:
Orange Roughy – a case study (from google scholar), Eel fishery as they are fresh water species
Conclusion:
Discussion – different findings:
MPI Consultation:
Introduction:
Summary of option:
Proposed options
We have three options for you to consider:
- Option 1: Tighten the rules for returning fish to the sea. This would tightly constrain returns to the sea and result in the removal of commercial MLSs for finfish.
- Option 2: Increase the flexibility around fish being returned to the sea. This would mean increasing the range of fish that could be returned to the sea.
- Option 3: Retain the current rules for what is landed and what is returned to the sea.
Analysis of MPI source of information:
Compare with MPI current management system:
Your own analysis – what does the literature review suggest about the options:
Conclusion:
Implication for other countries:
References:
Book Review: Te Matau a Māui: Fish-hooks, Fishing and Fisheries in New Zealand. (2017). International Journal of Maritime History, 29(2), 461-462. doi:10.1177/0843871417691715u.
Carl Walrond, ‘Fishing industry – Deep-water fisheries’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/fishing-industry/page-5 (accessed 15 May 2019)
Carl Walrond, ‘Fishing industry – Who owns quota?’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/fishing-industry/page-7 (accessed 12 May 2019)
Garza-Gil, & Varela-Lafuente. (2015). The preferences of the Spanish fishermen and their contribution on reform of the European Common Fisheries Policy. Ocean and Coastal Management, 116, 291-299.
Mcdowall, R. (2006). Fish, fish habitats and fisheries in New Zealand. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 9(4), 391-405. doi:10.1080/14634980601026352.
Memon, P., & Kirk, N. (2010). Maori commercial fisheries governance in Aotearoa/New Zealand within the bounds of a neoliberal fisheries management regime. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52(1), 106-118. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8373.2010.01437.x.
Sirak, Laura N. “Grey (Halichoerus Grypus) And Harbor Seal (Phoca Vitulina) Bycatch And Depredation In New England Sink-Gillnet Fisheries.” (2015).
Cryer, Martin, Pamela M. Mace, and Kevin J. Sullivan. “New Zealand’s ecosystem approach to fisheries management.” Fisheries oceanography 25 (2016): 57-70.
Slooten, E., Simmons, G., Dawson, S. M., Bremner, G., Thrush, S. F., Whittaker, H., … & Pauly, D. (2017). Evidence of bias in assessment of fisheries management impacts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(25), E4901-E4902.
Simmons G, et al. (2016) Reconstruction of marine fisheries catches for New Zealand (1950-2010). Working paper 2015-87 (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver). Available at www.seaaroundus.org/doc/PageContent/OtherWPContent/Simmons+et+al+2016+-+NZ+Catch+ Reconstruction+-+May+11.pdf.
Le Heron, Richard, Nick Lewis, Karen Fisher, Simon Thrush, Carolyn Lundquist, Judi Hewitt, and Joanne Ellis. “Non-sectarian scenario experiments in socio-ecological knowledge building for multi-use marine environments: Insights from New Zealand’s Marine Futures project.” Marine Policy 67 (2016): 10-21.
Clark, M. (1995). Experience with management of orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) in New Zealand waters, and the effects of commercial fishing on stocks over the period 1980–1993. In Deep-water fisheries of the north Atlantic oceanic slope (pp. 251-266). Springer, Dordrecht.
Winder, G. M. (2018). Context and Challenges: The Limited ‘Success’ of the Aotearoa/New Zealand Fisheries Experiment, 1986–2016. In Fisheries, Quota Management and Quota Transfer (pp. 77-98). Springer, Cham.
Darby, J. T., & Dawson, S. M. (2000). Bycatch of yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes) in gillnets in New Zealand waters 1979–1997. Biological Conservation, 93(3), 327-332.