IS IT OK TO EAT FISH IN NEW ZEALAND?

By Waveney Warth

Ngāti Pāoa recently placed scallops, mussels, crayfish and pāua around Waikehe Island under a two year rāhui. Photo credit: Rachel Mataira / Our Auckland

Long read: 10mins.  "Appraisal of New Zealand fisheries" plus bonus content at end "ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUYING FISH IN NEW ZEALAND" 

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..