Seafood New Zealand and our Ministry for Primary Industries tell us that we have a sustainable fishery, but many hapu, marine scientists and ANYONE trying to catch fish without commercial  fishing equipment say it’s getting harder and harder to catch and eat fish, crays, and shellfish around the coast of Aotearoa.  Tim and I explore who’s right and how to make sure the fish you eat is not leading to the extinction of Maui’s dolphins (or killing our unique seabirds or trawling through and destroying the seafloor ecosystem) in the Feb 2021 ‘Sustainable Fishing’ episode of How to Save the World podcast, available here: xxxxx  

In researching for the episode I came across a lot of rich information, and had the privilege of interviewing Geoff Keey Forest & Bird’s chief Strategic Fisheries Adviser; Te Atarangi Sayers  representing the hapu led Motiti Rohe Moana Trust; and reform advocate, Barry Torkington, Fishery Policy Advisor for LegaSea (NZ Sport Fishing Council) and former director of the commercial Leigh Fishery. 

The focus of the podcast itself was to, as broadly and succinctly as possible, highlight issues and then to really focus on (as always!) what listeners can do.  Which for this topic is “what can we do best support Aotearoa’s marine environment through to a future where our fish stocks are not in decline; where species never become ‘functionally extinct’; where the ecosystem of the ocean seafloor isn’t legally and routinely destroyed through bottom  trawling and dredging; and where we only ever take and eat what we want - not also accidental dolphins and seabirds and tonnes of other fish we call ‘bycatch’ because we don’t like to eat them”  
 
This blog focuses on the political context: what the status quo is, on what the issues are, who the players are and what legislative changes would be great to see.  I’ve also thrown in the basic take home messages from the podcast so you have it all in one. 

Excuse the bullet points!! We're all busy. Call it an intravenous information injection. 

The Quota Management System (QMS)

• The incumbent

• 1986 -  In response to rapidly dwindling fish supplies… world leading legislation ‘QMS’ Quota Management System.
• Fish stock is managed by area and species. 
• Govt sets annual TAC (total allowable catch) and TACC (total allowable commercial catch). 
• TACC quotas are divided up and GIVEN away, in PERPETUITY. These are called ITQs (Individual Transferable Quotas)
• ITQs are tradable! And so then becomes a valuable commodity. Has led to a feudal type of resource management - ‘Quota Lords’ - who get to sell off their ‘entitlements’. 
• Most of the quota went to 10 large companies. 
• They were divided up at the time based on each fisher’s catch history, minus a  percentage (since it was acknowledged that we were overfishing) 
• According to a global study led by Professor Ray Hilborn from the University of Washington, NZ’s fisheries ranks among the world’s top 5 best managed fisheries. 28 of the world’s largest fishing countries were studied. The results, presented at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit 2016 in Malta, showed that New Zealand came in among the top five countries with a score of 9 out of 10.
• Soooo sounds ok… 
• LegaSea contests that QMS resulted in corporate takeover; less tax and less jobs (even though the number of fish caught are the same). 
  • 6000 registered fishing boats in 1986 now 1100. Bigger boats. Less staff. Same amount of fish.
• Approximately 50 percent of fisheries quota are owned by iwi/Maori. (one example, Iwi now own half of Sea Lords) Barry Torkington  point out that  “QMS has pitched the commercial interests of iwi against the hapu customary rights” Each fish stock has a 100 million shares, iwi have built up a large portfolio of shares that lose value if Total Catches are reduced.  Meanwhile, hapu trying to supply kaimoana for a hui can struggle to cater for the event in customary waters that were not so long ago teeming with life.  

LegaSea & The Price of Fish
LegaSea NZ is the communications arm of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. Find them here:  www.legasea.co.nz.  They are vocal advocates for fishing reform for many reason - not  the least being that the status quo is making it really hard for recreational and small scale commercial fishers (one man bands / one woman choirs) to catch fish like we used to, (Near the shore, e.g. dingy or off the wharf,  and without state of the art fish tracking equipment).  

They made a documentary a couple of years ago called ‘The Price of Fish,’  which I recommend watching.  I reference it in the podcast and also through this blog as PoF. Watch it for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIQNDYoymMU.   The documentary was so good it has already led to a bit of a shake up at MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) with some tangible improvements.  

LegaSea have manifesto for inshore fisheries reform which focuses on getting large scale commercial fisheries out of the inshore zone; ntroduce a minimum unfished biomass of 50%; Ditching the quota  and replacing with time limited licenses.  Find the Manifesto here: https://legasea.co.nz/about-us/what-is-legasea/manifesto/.  And if you’re sold, sigh the Rescue Fish Petition (which is in support of the changes) here:  https://rescuefish.co.nz/ 


Seafood New Zealand 
Seafood New Zealand is the commercial fishing representative body.  Their website is full of interesting facts and they also have very engaging looking factsheets for school kids but…. but I contend that these guys are really just good at the art of presenting information in a way that makes it sound good … here are a few examples.  Seafood New Zealand state that, https://www.seafoodnewzealand.org.nz/industry/key-facts: 

• 95 percent of New Zealand's commercially landed catch is from sustainable stocks, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries' latest Fish Stock Status report. ‘commercially landed catch’ excludes bycatch. This would be a very different statistic if the ‘accidental’ but consistently landed bycatch was included - which is huge tonnages of fish, marine mammals and seabirds all discarded (dead) at sea;  And according to the Price of Fish documentary: 56% of our fish stock have no assessment; over a third ‘little or no population data  (which since release has actually helped to improve some of these issues although I don’t know by how much) (Price of Fish, 35:30)
• Approximately 30.5 percent of New Zealand's total marine environment is protected (Not from fishing! But from bottom trawling. The statistic would better read:  “Only 30.5% of New Zealand's seabed is protected against dredging and bottom trawling”, most would agree, even those in the industry, that the areas offered for protection are too difficult to bottom trawl because they are either too deep or too steep/ awkward.) 
• Approximately 50 percent of fisheries quota are owned by iwi/Maori. V Maori customary catch 1% of total catch. Actually there has been a loss of customary access. 

Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) 
The Ministry for Primary Industries has a conflicted mandate: 

• Industry promotion / export sales growth
• Industry management (write the rules) 

To be clear this would be like having Department of Conservation sitting under the umbrella of the the same ministry, so the people that made decisions on whether or not we wanted to clear fell our native forest areas (land equivalent of bottom trawling) are the some people who are tasked with trying to grow export sales of NZ timber.  LegaSea say that MPI is “Captured by the Industry” - but to be fair that’s kind of what they are set up to do. One of the most basic legislative things we need to urgently do is separate out these two functions. 

LegaSea(& Barry Torkington interview) point out the following: 

• “Current stock monitoring methods are unreliable, University research on fish numbers rarely included” - nor is the work of the world’s leading scientists on % of biomass (of the whole) that will give maximum fishing yield. (PoF 21:00) 
• They don’t set the TACC to sustainable levels. e.g. not listening to Marine Scientists, e.g. Nick Shears, on how many crayfish to take out of the Cray 2 Area. 
• TACC set so high they are often never achieved. (PoF 35:30)
• Thye cover covered up findings from their own investigators: “Inshore fishing trawlers were dumping ⅓ to ⅔ of catches”  (PoF 27:20; 27:55)  Hardly any prosecutions - never the big companies _ Barry Torkington. 
• Reports of bycatch doubles in camera trial: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/resources/seabird-bycatch-reports-double-hauraki-camera-trial

Forest & Bird Chief Strategic Fisheries Adviser, Geoff Keey point to small wins and other hopeful things on the horizon. 

• There is a NZ parliament fisheries working group (that Goeff is part of) who recently helped get the commercial fishing fleet to mandatory GPS on board and electronic log books. This had had immediate positive results.  The group has good reason to hope that the government will introduce mandatory cameras for the inshore fleet with in the next three years.   

• Until relatively recently the Ministry for Primary Industries also enforced the rules (an additional conflicted mandate)  Now its separate and there HAVE BEEN more investigations and more prosecutions since it was separated out.   
• There is also the freshly minted new Minister for Oceans and Fisheries – Hon David Parker.  One to watch. 

Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge
I would be remiss not to mention Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge from MBIE (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment), check their website out here: https://www.sustainableseaschallenge.co.nz/ And their origins with MBIE  here: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/funding-information-and-opportunities/investment-funds/national-science-challenges/the-11-challenges/sustainable-seas/ 
Est 2014  with $70 million in funding over 10 years. 220+ researchers are involved from 36 organisations across Aotearoa.  It is one of 11 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment-funded Challenges aimed at taking a more strategic approach to science investment.

They are proponents of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM).  Where its the Eco System that’s managed - not just the fish.  They say: ‘everything is connected; intergenerational; tailored for local values; based on science and mātauranga Māori.  Hooray!  Sound great…but they do come under criticism from experts who feel the forest is lost for trees.  Eco Systems are notoriously complex, it will take years more research to try and untangle how pulling one lever here effects another variable there.  If we genuinely were confused as to why there are less fish in the ocean and less shell fish on our shores then yes! Let’s do nothing while we research… But it really doesn’t seem that is the situation we find ourselves in.    

Other experts worry that they aren’t seeing clarity, so far, in what can and can’t be done. Forest and Bird advocate Geoff Keey is warns that understanding complexity must be balanced by the need for robust laws that can’t be cleverly side stepped. 
 
Their “10 things you should know” report  (https://www.sustainableseaschallenge.co.nz/news-and-events/news/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-ocean-this-summer/) highlights that its all very complex and we need lots of research; and that plastic pollution and sediment and lots and lots of things create problems. Totally agree and good on them for pointing it out,  but  personally it is disappointing, and maybe even alarming?, that the issue aren’t framed around the easy wins:  we KNOW we are taking too much (in terms of OCEAN management best practice)  and we KNOW that common commercial fishing methods result in bycatch of endangered seabirds, marine mammals and destruction of marine habitat through the routine practices of dredging and bottom trawling.  

So my vote would be more for the voice of hapu around the country, Forest and Bird and LegaSea  saying lets not take what is an urgent and essentially basic thing (like 1% of Crayfish left in the Hauraki Gulf) and turn it into something so complicated we can’t work out what to do.  
 
Ministry for the Environment; 
Along similar lines is the MfE Marine Environment 2019 study: https://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/marine/our-marine-environment-2019-summary.  Its a great document, full of sad statistics about the general decline of all things marine, but I didn’t come away with any sense that that we need to urgently change the way we let people fish in Aotearoa’s waters.  

Hapu voices
Motiti Rohe Moana Trust
I spoke with Motiti Rohe Moana Trust representative Te Atarangi Sayers who has been involved for a long time in trying to protect his hapu’s customary fishing grounds and wahi tapu sites, mahi  that continues on from kaumātua right back to the 1950s and earlier.  The hapu are situated in and around Tauranga.  When the Rena (big cargo ship) went to ground in 2011 on a reef that is part of the rohe’s customary fishing grounds the end result was the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust taking the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to court (more than once) and out of that came a series of decisions,  which in a nutshell, sets precidents for Tangata whenua Kaitiaki and other community members and the 'local environmental conditions'  to inform decision making across the legislative landscape.  It effects many things including the application of the Resource Management Act. 
Learn more here: http://www.nzlii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/nz/cases/NZEnvC/2018/67.html?query=Mrmt
https://rmla.org.nz/2020/04/21/the-motiti-decision-implications-for-coastal-management/
or this is an older article here: https://rmla.org.nz/2016/12/14/motiti-rohe-moana-trust-v-bay-of-plenty-regional-council-2016-nzenvc-240/ 

When I asked Te Atarangi what the best way to ensure the fish on your table was sustainable he didn’t hesitate: The best fish is the one you have the relationship with. The more time you spend the more you understand the lifeforce. He added that the purpose of ‘fishing’ is to share a relationship with the life force for our well being, we need to restore Maturanga values – whakapapa associated with places and space’.

Ngāti Pāoa Rāhui
As a response to the degradation of Tīkapa Moana (Hauraki Gulf), Ngāti Pāoa recently placed scallops, mussels, crayfish and pāua under a rāhui which covers the entirety of Waiheke Island and lasts for (at least) two years.
Read more here: https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2021/02/waiheke-local-board-gives-support-for-rahui-to-protect-the-island-s-kaimoana/
and here: Recreational Fishers rally to provide support here: https://legasea.co.nz/2021/01/30/recreational-fishers-rallying-support-for-waiheke-rahui/

Coromandel hapu conglomeration rahui
Recently a conglomeration of hapu put a rahui on collecting scollops on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsular. “They were getting smaller and smaller” says one representative, “The rahui was put in place to prevent the scollops collapsing because the government wasn’t doing anything” .

LegaSea spokesperson, Sam Woolford, adds their support for the rahui:  “Commercial catch limits have remained high while actual harvest declines. This is a failure of the Quota Management System. Mismanagement of scallops has seen the commercial fleet dwindle from a peak of 23 boats, down to four this season… While the Quota Management System is failing Kiwis, it’s motivating to see that the local community rallying together and taking control to ensure their scallop beds are not wiped out like we have already seen in the Marlborough Sounds, Tasman and Golden Bays, and the Kaipara Harbour.” 

In Coromandel, fishery companies are legally allowed to dredge 50-tonnes of scallops yearly. For the 2019-2020 season, however, they only caught 13 tonnes (26%) of their total allowable commercial catch, due to scallop population decline. There have been years of harvests being unconstrained (in that they can’t reach the total catch limit they are allowed to legally take) and dredging (which is dragging a metal cage along the ocean sea floor which destroys the marine floor habitat).  

So far, evidence of this decline is anecdotal, but it points to decimated populations of scallops, crabs, crustaceans, other shellfish and sea life that inhabit the seafloor:: 

• Experienced divers saying that the once abundant seabeds, which the area is known for, appear barren
• Scallops used to wash up on the shores, but we haven’t seen that in the last five or six years
• MPI has not surveyed the scallop beds off the Coromandel since 2012, so we are 9 years out of date - that’s a long time to not act when your local hapu alert you a crisis.  

Forest & Bird:
Ocean landing page: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/oceans.  Forest and BIrd are focused on the by catch issue.  Here’s the campaign:  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/zero-bycatch 
I asked if they had alternative system “with a name” like we have the ‘Quota Management System’  or proponents of the  ‘Eco Based Management System’ or the ‘Manifesto’ for reform from LegaSea.  Geoff Keey said the that most succinct proposition of the issues and the changes that are needed  is in the briefing for incoming ministers. Which can be found here.  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/sites/default/files/2021-02/Forest%20%26%20Bird%20Briefing%20to%20the%20Incoming%20Government%202021.pdf


Best Fish Guide
Best Fish Guide is Forest and Birds consumer guide to selecting the least harmful fish. This is an absolute must for anyone trying to navigate this tricky space: , http://bestfishguide.org.nz/ 


‘Marine Stewardship Council’ blue tick
The MSC is an international certifier of sustainable fisheries. It was Unilever’s idea to help certify their own fish products. They approached the World Wild Life FOundation (WWF) and they have been a partner from the start. Find them here:  https://www.msc.org/

However, big warning sign,  WWF can only advise.  Sometimes they advise against certifying but they do it anyway.  They cay on their website that they do not always stand by the blue tick. - which really makes it meaningless for any consumer trying to navigate: https://www.wwf.org.nz/what_we_do/marine/sustainable_fisheries/marine_stewardship_council/ 



HERE ENDTH THE LESSON! 
So that’s the little run down on what I recently learnt about what turns out to be quite a loaded, contested space, where not all is what it seems.  The information following from this point onward is a cut and paste of what I said in the podcast for those of you who didn’t catch it. 


Global

• The first thing to point out is the big picture. It is estimated that 87% of our planet's fisheries are overexploited or fully exploited. (https://www.coralcay.org/overfishing) 
• From a fishing perspective ‘Overexploited’ means that you took more fish than the population could sustain and so now there are less fish 
• But from an oceans management perspective ‘overexploiting’ means what we are taking is having a negative impact on the ocean. Issues include 
  • Seabird & marine mammals in trouble
  • The ocean environment degraded or completely destroyed. 
    • e.g. the seabed 
    • balance. (kina barrens eating kelp forests) 
• Modern day fishing fleet technology is cut throat. Going faster, further with ruthless technology that fish can no longer hide from.

New Zealand has four main issues - reflective of global patterns: 

1. Fish and shellfish stock dropping
   1. What we have left might be as much as half, or as little as a quarter. (Geoff Key Interview). 
   2. Examples Crayfish, but Tarahiki (Geoff Keey interview), Hapuka, Groper (Price of Fish doco)
   3. We don’t have an actual legal minimum baseline. By contrast Australia’s stock are now around 50% and they want it to be up to 60% by 2027. (Barry Torkington interview)
2. Unintended effects of overfishing one species on the rest of the marine eco-system
   1. Forest & Bird policy advisor, Geoff  Keey, believes that most of the time the ministry gets the TACCs right in terms of the allowing the fish stock to be caught at that volume in perpetuity….BUT that doesn’t answer the question of what doing that means for the marine ecosystem. 
   2. “If there is not enough for recreational fishers to catch now….Maybe that’s true for the seabirds and dolphins too”  
   3. (This is what the Eco Based Management system and the National Science Challenge is all about) 
3. Unacceptable levels of by catch (threatened sea birds and marine mammals) 
   1. In NZ its illegal to kill protected species, unless you are a commercial fisher (Forest & Bird, https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/zero-bycatch) “its not illegal to by catch accidently”
   2. Maui Dolphins netted: Only 15 breeding females! 
   3. Over 80% of seabirds are endangered. 15,000 seabirds caught annually by fishing methods. Mostly long lines (Kevin Hague, Forest & Bird)
   4. Fishers are legally required to report everything - $100,000 if they don’t. 
      1. However almost impossible to catch. 
      2. Forest & Bird Analysis of MPI records show fishers are up to 9 times as likely to report by catch when there is an observer on board. (Geoff Keey interview).  

 

1. Irreparable destruction of the seabed ecosystem
   1. From bottom trawling – which is currently legal in both our inshore and off shore fisheries. 

Different sectors have a different take on what the main causes of these problems are:  

• I’ve already mentioned “Taking too much”  
• Two other main issues: 
  • Fishing techniques
  • Legislation / Enforcement issues

Fishing techniques

• Most of the fish listed red and orange in Forest and Bird’s ‘Best Fish Guide’ are actually because of the fishing techniques used. 
• Most fishing methods have negative environmental impacts. 
• Bottom trawling & dredging
  •  Bottom trawling “large weighted nets dragged across ocean floor” 
  • Dredging “solid cage dragged across ocean floor” for crabs – bottom dwellers
  • By catch and destruction…. 
  • Clear-cutting a swath of habitat in their wake, destroying corals and sponges – absolutely everything – and scooping up fish, animals, marine mammals, plants, and turtles 
  • In recent coldwater coral studies, a review of damaged areas seven years later revealed no new growth.
  • In fact leads to a desert of silt which is resuspended every time
  • In 2016 British retailers refused to stock NZ Hoki because of the bottom-trawling method used to catch the species 
• Mid trawling and purse seining or Danish seining 
  • Weighted nets + buoys 
  • Same by catch issues

 

• LegaSea Manifesto: “A century of ever-expanding use of heavy, bottom contact mobile gear has transformed the sea floor from a thriving benthic community of organisms to a desert of fine silt. This silt is re-suspended and distributed further each time mobile, industrial fishing gear is towed across the sea floor. Benthic (seabed) diversity and abundance need restoring, and the priority needs to be to remove all industrial methods” https://legasea.co.nz/about-us/what-is-legasea/manifesto/
• LegaSea advocates:  Remove industrial fishing methods such as trawling, Danish seining and dredging from the inshore zone. (Prior to industrial fishing the inshore zone was highly productive, providing nursery functions for dozens of species) 

 Amend the Fisheries Act:

• Our Fisheries Act – isn’t the Oceans Act. Its only about the long term sustainability of the act of fishing.  
• Focus on inshore fisheries. Should be ‘static and small’ 
  • Ban netting in Maui dolphin territory
  • Ban dredging and bottom trawling
  • Modify surface longline rules to reduce seabird bycatch
• Mandatory cameras – so we can actually enforce
• Introduce a minimum unfished biomass of 50%
• Ditch the quota – which is given away for free in perpetuity! 
• Replace with time limited licenses. 

Let’s do what we can that we know will make an enormous, immediate difference

CONSUMER SOLUTIONS 
What’s the best way to get a sustainably caught fish on the table? 

• CATCH IT 

 

• If you aren’t fishing? …. Nobody I spoke to could crack this.  When the fisheries system is this broken, we actually usually can’t 

The best I can do is this suggestion from Barry Torkington, Fishery Policy Advisor: 

• Go to your nearest port. 
• There is a provision in the Act for wharf sales – can be up to 10% of catch
• (however there is no incentive for fishers to usually do so – a lot of paper work) 
• Find the fishers and ask if they will sell direct. 

Next best - is my "Ultimate guide to buying fish" - which is a pretty comprehensive guide to avoid putting unsustainably caught fish on the table…

• At the fish and chip shop: 
  • Avoid unlabelled ‘fish’
  • usually Elephant Fish, blue warehou, red cod, or shark species (Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/6370/fish-and-chips)
  • ALL coded the worst on the guide ‘do not eat’ 
  • Usually caught through ‘set netting, (Geoff Keey interview) 
  • If its cheap, its likely to have been caught using the easiest quickest methods (which cause the issues)
  • Geat Stuff article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/115115301/which-fish-should-we-avoid-at-the-fish-and-chip-shop

 
 

• At the fish counter / fish monger
  • Ditch popular terakihi, groper and snapper in favour of something different like kahawai. trevally, warehou, rig, lemonfish and sea perch.  
    • Tarahiki (critcially low– boycott);
    • Step out of those classic few and try new things: Reduces the pressure on any one species 
    • Smaller fishers may opt to dump bycatch over the side of the boat, due to low return and high quote costs, but more people consuming less-known species would change that. So it encourages better practises and helps support these local small scale guys who need it," Barclay said (https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/115115301/which-fish-should-we-avoid-at-the-fish-and-chip-shop)   

 

• Use the best fish guide . App available for iPhone and Android, or download the PDF .  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/best-fish-guide. Here’s the PDF: (https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/sites/default/files/2018-05/Best%20Fish%20Guide%20-%20Pocket%20Guide.pdf).   Good choices: 
  • Salmon (farmed, freshwater Canterbury (marine Canterbury still OK, not as good) 
  • Paua (farmed) (whole to save plastic) 
  • Green-lipped mussel (farmed) 
  • “OK choices”:   Kahawai;  Skipjack tuna;  
• Buy a whole fish!
  • The Whole Fish Cookbook: New ways to cook, eat and think,  2019, Josh Niland 
  • Kai Ika: Over 84 tonnes discarded fish parts transformed into delicious meals
  • AND TAKE YOUR OWN CONTAINER (New World) 
  • good NZ Herald article: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/eatwell/food-news/sustainable-seafood-in-new-zealand/DTRDKDWUQQVCD37KXYHP6OIF4A/

 

• At the frozen section 
  • (usually packaged and processed) 
  • This is where you might find the blue tick and lots of hoki products - which WWF don’t endorse the blue tick for.
    • WWF has significant concerns about this certification,( https://www.wwf.org.nz/media_centre/?14441/WWF-disappointed-about-certification-of-NZ-orange-roughy-fishery_ )  due to the use of bottom trawls in this fishery which is causing serious and irreversible harm to sensitive habitats and to ecosystem functions

 

• In the isles with the cans
  • Tuna: Pole and Line is GREAT. Its had to find though.  Pams used to do it. I haven’t seen it for ages.  If you can find it good for you
    • Check that the can ingredients say say what type of  tuna it is. Greenpeace Tuna expert Karli Thomas explains: “Any product should give the species of tuna it is made of, even if that could be a mix of two.... like skipjack and yellowfin. It might be that nobody even knows or it can’t be guaranteed or that it varies seasonally.  In 2011 we (Greenpeace) pinged them in genetic testing for having longtail tuna in a can they claimed was yellowfin” This is the show stopper - with out this info we consumers can’t possibly know if its an endangered fish.
    • ‘caught without the use of fish aggregating devices’ is good.  That was the objective of the Greenpeace campaign in 2011.  
  • Tins of Salmon:  Very difficult to track. We have good fresh options so easier to avoid cans
  • ​​Sardines.  I didn’t get a good chance to look into this, but on first impression is does bode well.  

 

• At a restaurant
  • Three questions to ask (can also do at the supermarket counter / fish monger) – from LegaSea: 
    • Where was the fish caught? 
    • When was the fish caught?
    • How was the fish caught?

Josh Barclay policy advisor at LegaSea  points out: "All three of those are selling points for fish. If it was caught recently, locally, and in a good way, the person behind the counter will know that. If they don't know that, it's probably not a great sign."
“in a good way would be not with nets, or trawling” e.g. longline or pots. 

What else can you do?

• Green swap / crop swap. Grow a lot of one thing well for swapping.
• Integrate 
  • Sediment reduction - spawning habitats.  Fencing and planting.  
  • Te Atarangi Sayers: Not just numbers dropping. Fish are full of micro-plastics. Bio accumulating.  Address our waste. Change our relationship with what we consume. Pollution pumped in from the industry. 

And don’t forget to help out by signing these two petitions: 

• Rescue Fish petition: https://rescuefish.co.nz/ (from LegaSea)
• Zero By Catch – sign the pledge
  • Campaign: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/zero-bycatch 
  • Pledge: page not working..

LISTEN TO:  RAGLAN EPISODE 1
LISTEN TO:  RAGLAN EPISODE 2 

My mates in Raglan (Whaingaroa) are totally convinced I should move there. It's the best place in Aotearoa they say, world class surf,  stunning scenery... very drinkable coffee, and a ready-made connected community of  people who care - although its worth noting that when the surf's up those same locals have quite the feisty side.  Last year Rick Thorpe, one of my Raglan zero-waste-community-enterprise brothers, decided that Tim and I needed to do a road trip to visit the town an tell its remarkable sustainability story, 'there's an insane amount going on here, it's mean.'  A road trip?? Aren't we just two happy little audiophiles in our Auckland studio? Then another friend who has a mint permaculture farm just out of Whaingaroa invited us to stay and that was that.  I imagined we'd cruise down, do two or three interviews and then kick back and enjoy some combo involving local organic food, beer, surf and panoramic views. I don't know if he planned it, but after we were hooked in, Rick emailed me every few days with more projects and more people that we absolutely had to include - 'These guys are world leaders' 'These guys were doing it before it even had a name' 'These guys have mobilised half the town'.  Before I knew it we had nine interviewees.  Which quickly became two episodes and three days / two nights away.  
 
So Tim and I hit the road and met lots of apparently ordinary people doing some 'hang on what now?!' incredible things. At How to Save the World we only want to share pathways to sustainability that you can achieve. Usually that means focusing on lifestyle choice, buying  power and citizen advocacy.  What's happening in Whaingaroa is something else entirely, but just as achievable. Its little groups of people moulding their local environment - away from the standard ensemble of energy and food shipped in; waste shipped out; waterways degrading and native species struggling  (i.e. your tangible local example of our global climate-changing-extinction-causing tricky situation). The projects we investigated, some twenty years old, others brand new, are actually heaving the town’s entire infrastructure and physical environment toward a regenerative thriving circular economy.  What we found out is best listened to straight from the people's mouths who are involved but a couple of themes are worth noting here.

• Action emerged when people stopped thinking that the council or government should be the ones to fix everything.
• Not much happens without a mandate from the community members - no show ponies here - lots of kōrero. 
• Mana whenua have been waiting for us all to catch on and have centuries of observations and knowledge ...something to keep in mind when deciding to 'start' something.

On that note, we would like to mihi to the many whānau, hapū and iwi of Whaingaroa. Ko Karioi te maunga, ko Whaingaroa te moana, ko Tainui te waka. The hapū of Whaingaroa have a long history of advocacy, transformation and enabling, notably whaea Eva Rickard, tēnā koutou.  In our interview with Rick he shares a quote from the whaea that over twenty years on still rings true, “Don’t wait for permission to do something about it.”  
​

Here is my scintillating Kitty litter saga! 
 
When I got my two cats, Pippi and Bodhi, I chose So Phresh Clumping Litter with Activated Charcoal because I thought it was an eco-friendly option. You can buy it in bulk from Animates (so no plastic bags), and the info says: “100% Natural. Made from clay and charcoal, no added chemicals.” I thought- clay- well that’s just dirt isn’t it? Totally natural! It must be eco-friendly! It also seemed relatively cheap compared to other litter products at the pet store.
 
I started putting the used litter into my compost bin, but then got advice that cat poo can be very toxic and should not be used to make compost that might end up in a food garden. Also- the cats generated a lot of used cat litter and the stuff was beginning to fill up my bin, and not show any sign of breaking down into compost. It looked more like it was turning into concrete. I don’t have my own garden here as I share a yard with other flats, and also I rent- and so I couldn’t bury the used litter here.
 
I even asked a friend if I could bury the waste out on their rural property - far away from food gardens out in the bush, which we did once. Then Covid hit and I had to manage the waste here at my place by myself.
 
I then – feeling very guilty- started putting the bags in my general rubbish bin that goes to land fill. I have felt awful about this but couldn’t work out what else to do. In a landfill clay-based litter, tied up in a little plastic bag is not biodegradable.
 
Whilst in lockdown I started to investigate what Clay-based litter is and where it actually comes from. I was shocked to discover that it is not actually eco-friendly at all. There are a few websites that explain this including:

• https://greenlivingideas.com/2015/08/13/how-cat-litter-is-made/
• https://groundswell.org/kitty-litter-not-6-cheap-ways-to-reduce-your-pets-environmental-impact/
• https://tofukittyclub.com/blog/the-environmental-impact-of-cat-litter-how-eco-friendly-is-your-cats-litter

 
Basically, Clay-based litter is made from raw bentonite clay that is strip-mined in places like Wyoming and Brazil. It takes a lot of energy to mine, and then treat, not to mention package and ship to our stores in NZ. Strip mining also causes environmental devastation. To add insult to injury, there is a lot of information to suggest that Clay-based litter can contain silica dust which is a carcinogen. This type of litter has also linked with digestive problems in cats when they clean themselves, and also asthma and respiratory issues in humans and pets due to the dust.
 
I don’t know where and how SoPhresh manufactures their Clay-based cat litter. It’s very hard to track the whakapapa of the product through google searches. I am not happy with this lack of transparency.
 
So- the stuff that I thought was a sensible ecologically-aware choice has turned out to be not only environmentally catastrophic all the way from manufacture to disposal, but also possible actually harmful to the health of both me and my pets. Epic fail.
 
I started to look for a cat litter alternative that was more ecologically sound, but also effective to use… and also cheap. I wanted something that would ideally limit the smell, and allow me to scoop out the poo and wee. I tried a few options until I came across a website that suggested the use of wood pellets- the kind that people use to light fires. I tried them with my cats- and am (currently!) totally sold on them as an excellent eco cat litter.
 
I found Azwood Energy Eco Pellets: https://www.azwood.co.nz/, and also Nature’s Flame wood pellet fuel: https://www.naturesflame.co.nz/shop/Wood+Pellet+Fuel.html
 
Here is why I like wood pellets for kitty litter:

• They’ve got way less air-miles and are HEAPS more eco-friendly than clay-based litter: Wood pellets are made in NZ from untreated waste products from the timber industry: wood shavings, cut offs and sawdust. No harmful glue or additives are required. Nature’s Flame state on their website that they hold a Dinplus certification that “ …gives us great confidence that we are providing our customers with the highest quality wood pellets in New Zealand, and that we are doing it in a sustainable, earth-friendly way.

• They’re WAY Cheaper: a 15 kg bag of Nature’s Flame Wood pellets currently retails at $9.98 at Mitre10, compared to SoPhresh Clumping Cat Litter which is currently on sale on the Animates Website as $22.49 for a 12L bag (it usually retails at $29.99 per 12L bag).
• Eco Pellets can be bought from loads of different places- including The Warehouse, Mitre10 etc, not just pet stores/ places that sell pet products.
• They’re functional: Because the pellets are hard and dry, the moisture is pulled from the poo, so that it is left in a hard lump- which is easy to scoop out. The wee turns the pellets into sawdust, which sifts to the bottom of the tray in a pile, and is also quite easy to scoop out because its consistency is different from the hard pellets.
• The Wood Pellets absorbs the smell quite well.
• The Pellets can’t get tracked through the house from the cats’ paws in the way that Clay-based litter can (ewww). Any pellets that get kicked out of the litter tray are easy to sweep up.
• It’s possible to dispose of the litter in an eco- friendly way (though I am still working on this myself).
  • My intention is to build a worm farm and put the cat poo in there. Cat poo can be toxic, but this is not a problem for worms who (I understand) will convert the poo to a product that is safe for the garden.
  • The cat wee sawdust and old pellets that are left when I change over to a fresh tray can all go straight into my regular compost, and should eventually be safe for the food garden (as long as there is no poo in it).

​
The only downsides:

• The packaging: Azwood Energy have Eco Pellets that are packaged in a cardboard box that is wholly biodegradable and compostable, but it looks like they are phasing out this product as it is hard to find in stores. All the other Wood Pellet products are packaged in a plastic bag which is a bit stink. I have not seen anywhere that allows one to buy wood pellets in bulk with your own container, but I guess there may be a place somewhere in NZ that does this… maybe a timber yard?
• One of my cats is happy with the transition to the wood pellets, but the other one still isn't too sure. I once caught her having a wee on the bathmat in protest. Hopefully she will adjust soon!

This holiday season, we're trying to be conscious of not buying plastic-y, non-Earth friendly gifts for people that they may not even like! So we've got 10 suggestions for sustainable gifts for everyone you will be gift-giving to this year.

1)     Christmas Crackers from KidsCan
They’re only $2.50 each from Countdown, Harvey Norman, The Coffee Club and other retailers. Inside you’ll find a party hat, cheesy joke and the chance to win a spa pool, trampolines, toys, and sweet treats instead of a plastic toy everyone throws in the bin.
Even better, DIY crackers – You can buy the "Bang" from spotlight, rescue the rest.  At Creative Junk in Christchurch (who also do gift vouchers) you can buy a big bag of craft supplies for $10.  North Shore Recycling Centre in Auckland is also incredible value.  OR if you just want to buy ready made sustainable christmas crackers you can't go past  Hopper in Wellington, available online. 


2)     Ethical, natural cosmetics and skincare from Go Native NZ
Go Native are a premium online seller/supplier of natural, organic and ethical skincare ingredients. Over the almost 20 years the business has been around, they’ve developed a global network of suppliers of essential, carrier and fragrance oils, cosmetic butters, waxes, raw materials, ready-to-go bases, and more. The ingredients must be ethically sourced and where possible they buy direct from the growers, so they can establish a relationship with them. You can buy raw ingredients, made products OR Make Kits which are a really fun gift.

3)     Nectar Feeder
A fantastic way to support native birdlife and easy to make yourself (or buy one). Forest and Bird have a great guide on the basics of bird feeding and how to make an upside down bottle feeder.  The feeders take a sugar water solution that is easy to make and can help birds get through hungry seasons. 
To make a feeder, take a one-litre milk bottle and attach the lid to a shallow dish or jar lid. Fill the milk bottle with sugar water and make a few small holes about 0.5cm from the bottom of the bottle. Screw it into the lid and turn the dish upside down. Sugar solution will come out of the bottle and fill the dish to the height of the holes.
Banks Peninsular Conservation Trust pamphlet (warning: PDF) on care and concerns. Buy ready-made for about $60 delivered to your door.


4)     A Bee House
It’s crucial we start looking after our pollinators and a the most effective in the bee family are solitary bees, which need housing while doing their job all day. The ready-made houses start from $30. You can even make these with recycled materials, using a waterproof container (1.5L fizzy drink bottle), wool, air drying clay, string, holy tubes such as bamboo. Video instructions are here and here. Also if you receive a gift like this and really want to learn more, get to the Big Buzz Festival festival, 14 Feb, Matakana. 


5)     String Art Kit
They’re back in fashion and a beautiful way to provide art and stress relief to someone you care about. All you need is a backing board, nails, wool or string and an image. You tack nails in and provide string. Any wooden backing board (renovation off cuts, flatish drift wood, chopping board) will do and any string or wool that isn’t too fluffy will work. Check TradeMe and secondhand craft stores to source what you'll need. Reverse image tree is here and a feather template is here.


6)     Sustainable Coastlines Merch
We love Sustainable Coastlines and you can support their cause AND share their brand. They’ve got jandals made from recovered plastic from the ocean that are 100% recyclable (but very strong and hard wearing - $30), water bottles and t-shirts all available here.


7)     Inoculated Mushroom Log
Admittedly, a bit of a weird one but for the right person – a fantastic gift! You can grow your own NZ native Oyster and Shitake mushrooms by using dowel plugs and use own log, see here for instructions. Takes six months to a year for the spores to take, then lasts for years. Note –you can only use a log from a deciduous (hard wood) tree. The log needs a shady spot, damper the better. Great video (apart from USA imperial measurements) is here. SporeShift NZ have what you need here.

How to Save the World visits sustainable apartment dweller to record episode. 

Angela (left) and Waveney, at Angela's apartment

The only pest this garden needs protection from! 

Is your bank doing all that it can to make a difference for good? Banks are one of the most powerful ‘future creators’ in modern society. More or less they get to choose who they invest their millions (and billions) in, empowering some and squeezing others. They can also affect climate through their operational footprints and have significant opportunity to give back to communities through grants and other charitable activities. 

How to Save the World podcast decided to delve into finding New Zealand’s most sustainable bank. So I rolled my sleeves up and spoke with financial experts from across the sector to devise a five point criteria and weighting system for assessment and then researched and contacted each bank to see how they performed in each category. Special thanks to Professor David Tripe, (Professor of Banking at Massey University); Barry Coates, (Mindful Money CEO); John Berry, (CareSaver CEO); CEOs and Heads of Sustainability within the banking sector that were happy to speak with me; and to the people seeking finance who shared their stories.   

The five criteria are: 

Internal sustainability
Looking at the carbon footprint of the operations inside the big five banks including things like electric vehicle take-up in their fleet (shout out Westpac), getting 5 and even 6 Green star buildings (that’s Kiwibank]) sorting out green business procurement (ANZ and Westpac is using Fwd.) and ASB, Westpac and BNZ all getting Toitū Envirocare[https://www.toitu.co.nz/] certification, for being carbon zero (well ASB & Westpac) or enviro mark gold (BNZ - making a start).

Corporate Responsibility
Looking at the social and environmental activity of the banks, how they treat their employers and what they’re doing for the wider communities they’re a part of. Including BNZ’s support of Kauri 2020 Trust and Westpac’s CoGo Partnership – a cool organisation making ethical living clearer and easier.

Investment and Lending Portfolios
Looking into where the bank’s are putting their money. Which banks still ‘fuel’ climate change by providing oil companies with capital? To check on your bank: 

• Kiwi listeners: 350 Aotearoa (check out graph ‘Does your bank fund climate change?’) 
• Australian listeners: Market Forces

And on the positive side, which banks are actively trying to make a positive difference? Some examples include BNZ who, since 2017 have facilitated NZ$2.875 billion of green and sustainable bonds [https://www.bnz.co.nz/about-us/sustainability]; SBS’ affordable housing products; Westpac’s interest free Warm Up Loan scheme to help add insolation and heat pumps and heat pumps and Kiwibank’s Solar Subsidy and support of the Nga Tangata Microfinance programme.

Eco-literacy of lenders
As our society seeks to transition to a circular-low-carbon-economy, new enterprises with different profit and risk models are emerging, (examples include social enterprise, community enterprise, iwi enterprise, co-ownership, micro-finance, regenerative farming, organic farming, permaculture design and alternative housing solutions like homes without land, prefabs, and co-housing). We spoke with people from these sectors and asked them to share their experiences in seeking finance.  In short, the experiences are frustrating. Banks can only lend to what they know and no one seems to yet have a frame of reference for loan seekers who may for example, be actively trying to reduce productivity or mitigate risk through community involvement. This doesn’t mean positive discrimination! It means banks knowing how to assess risk accurately in these new contexts. And although it may take a while to trickle through, Sean Barnes director of Fwd: says  ``there is a great deal of interest from banks wanting to be better involved”.  

Ownership. 
Several of the experts I spoke with pointed out that it's important who owns a bank. While things are never clear cut, a locally owned bank in such a small country is forced to be more transparent and is able to be more responsive.  Banks that are listed and accountable to shareholders have an obligation, above anything else to do all it legally can to maximise profit. Offshore owned and locally owned banks suck or circulate profits through our communities in very different ways. 

SPOILER ALERT: If you are planning on listening to the show to find out who we 'awarded' the most sustainable bank mantle to then don't read on....

IN SUMMARY all of the banks are doing some great things, I spoke with so many passionate people and the big banks in particular are supporting some great outcomes in the charity sector and leading the way with operational sustainability. 

I thought picking a winner might be really hard, but actually, each independant financial expert I asked, if they felt like they could make call agreed.  If we asked the UN what they were doing to further sustainability would we expect them to talk about their office recycling programme? NO UN has power. Banks have power (arguably more power that the UN?!? - I don't know but its a lot of power). Transformational power.   We have judge a bank on what it is doing with its true power - its power to shape our future by who it lends to. It also helps to be locally owned and the co-operatives are such a great business model I feel like the title is there for taking...BUT SBS, TBS and Co-Operative Bank haven't really jumped in there. A great example of what they could be is in Bank of Australia and Triodos Bank (UK). They have claimed the sustainability space and have been going gang busters ever since.  May be next year you guys! 


The winner of the How to Save the World most sustainable New Zealand bank  is …Kiwibank.  The bank is New Zealand owned, and even though its not a cooperative, (because its owned by the government) it is really owned by all of us. Essentially Kiwibank won because like a lot of the other banks they tick a lot of awesome boxes but in addition they have one of the strongest no lend policies for Fossil Fuels in the world.  And THAT is fantastic! Something to be so proud of! And Kiwibank is doing some great stuff in the community too.  Well done Kiwibank!

THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this episode,  all of the banks; all of the independent organisations from the financial sector; and all of the varied representatives from the sustainability sector: 
The banks

• ANZ (Environmental policy https://www.anz.co.nz/about-us/corporate-responsibility/environment/ and Sustainability Framework  https://www.anz.com.au/about-us/sustainability-framework/environmental-sustainability)
• ASB (About us page) https://www.asb.co.nz/about-us?fm=header:menu:about_us
• BNZ (Sustainability page) https://www.bnz.co.nz/about-us/sustainability
• Co-operative Bank (https://www.co-operativebank.co.nz/everyday-banking)
• Kiwibank (What we stand for https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/what-we-stand-for/) 
• SBS https://www.sbsbank.co.nz/
• TSB (https://www.tsb.co.nz/)
• Westpac (Sustainability Report https://www.westpac.co.nz/who-we-are/sustainability-and-community/how-we-re-tracking/sustainability-reports/

Independent finance sector experts

• Professor David Tripe, Massey University, https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=537230
• Mindful Money [https://mindfulmoney.nz/]
• CareSaver https://caresaver.co.nz/
• Living Economies [https://livingeconomies.nz/], 

Sustainability experts and enterprises

• 350 Aotearoa [https://350.org.nz/]
• Zero Waste Network https://zerowaste.co.nz/
• Community Energy Network https://www.communityenergy.org.nz/
• Manawatū dairy farmer Sam Hogg, also featured in this NZ Geographic article https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/regeneration/
• Fwd: (pronounced ‘forward’),  enabling social procurement https://www.fwd.org.nz/

Ever failed to see something because it was too big? Like not being able to see to the back of the fridge because of all the clutter, and then realising the thing you are after IS right in front of your face.  Well…this is kind of the same. ​We actually have hundreds of longitudinal case studies, many spanning centuries, of entire civilisations that have already cracked this.  If this comes as a surprise, it might be because, you, like me, come from a western cultural perspective and when you came across the “data” you didn’t see it for what it was.

Globally we actually have thousands of examples of societies that have already successfully made the transition to "self-limitation" hundreds or thousands of years ago when they faced the same issues (that humanity now faces on global scale) on regional or continental scales.   That’s why locally here in Aotearoa te Ao Māori  - the Māori world view is so important to our survival. Te Ao Māori, is one example of many, of humans having successfully 'curved their enthusiasm' to avoid collapse and voluntarily live in balance with the world so that it can continue to sustain us.   (Yet we Pākehā can get the wrong end of the stick ay and sometimes think we are ones that have figured it all out.)
​

Climate change isn't our underlying problem: it's a symptom of our underlying problem. So how do we cause climate change?  Put in simplest terms: humans cause climate change because we are too dominant in the system.

In 2018 the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published a report which Darrin Qualman brings to life in his article 'Civilisation as asteroid.' The article quantifies our dominance on earth by weight. ​

Oil is impacting life on earth in many ways, the first that comes to mind for most of us is climate change. But scroll back up to the three bar graph. Can you see something (apart from our dominance),  that is enormously significant? Here’s a mountain bike analogy, hope it’s helpful!

• If the total biomass of all land based animals and birds before human primacy weighed the equivalent of my MOUNTAIN BIKE then that’s the natural, stable, carrying capacity of the planet (in this geological epoch) – that’s the height of the first bar in the graph.  
• Today,  earth is now roughly supporting 7 MOUNTAIN BIKES. 
• While wildlife has gone from one bike down to 20% (- the pedals?) 
• …Humans have gone from weighing less that one spoke (in the first two bars in the graph the weight of humans is too small to appear) to weighing 2.5 mountain bikes. 
• ….and livestock from zero to over 4 MOUNTAIN BIKES. 

How is it even possible to get 7 times over the natural carrying capacity of the earth? Was earth full of lazy mammals and birds that could have grown their populations but couldn’t be bothered? No. Earth was maxed out. Any mature stable eco-system is an insanely competitive environment because the general rule-of-thumb its millions of different inhabitants go by is “take every little bit of light and food you can get and multiple." 

So how is it possible then?  OIL IS WHY our population and our farm animals weigh 7 times what our earth is naturally be able to carry.  Modern agriculture is the science of turning oil into food. It’s a marvel. Previously life has pretty much only had access to the daily total of energy from the sun. Oil unlocks sunlight from millions of years ago in a form more concentrated and therefore more powerful than today’s sunlight. 
​

Welcome to the new blog (and website) for How to Save the World podcast show. We are based in New Zealand, Tim’s in Auckland city, I’m in Matakana living rurally, (photo shows my farm at dawn).  How to Save the World seeks to find environmentally stable pathways into our future. The blog will primarily delve into the topics we discuss in each podcast episode.  

​Recently Tim and I were working on articulating what’s at the heart of what we do and accidently wrote a creed, (which looks like a helpful creed for the 21st Century too).
 
The How to Save the World Creed:

• We refuse to be paralysed by fear. We are humans and need to live full rich lives with joy and connection, and we can absolutely do this while improving the planet (in fact, those two things seem to be strongly linked!).
• We believe 90% of the population continually changing 1% of their behaviour has more impact than 1% changing 90%.
• We strongly believe that by everyone doing their part, we can change the trajectory of our planet’s future.
• We listen to the experts and the evidence to understand how we can most effectively chip away at the problem.
• We see the issues and solutions as vast but inter-connected. This means small changes can positively effect 1000s of little unrelated things, all over the world.  Which means change can be SIMPLE.
• In short, we believe the most under-utilised power on the planet is the collective power of its human citizens and we are here to connect people with their power to make a difference. 
• Oh! We believe that talking about sustainability can be engaging – even uplifting.  

How to Save the World podcast
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