PROTECTED SPECIES
Both the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries and the NZ Department of Conservation have obligations to look at the effects of commercial fishing on marine protected species. The costs of investigating and mitigating those effects are partially funded from a levy on Commercial Fishers.
Collabrative approaches between Government and Industry have been successful in modifying existing fishing behaviour and practises while new innovative idea's, devices and technologies are continually being developed, tested and evaluated.
Industry participation and involvement is essential in developing and implementing any new mitigation measures or devices.
Lat 37, through its Principal Simon Anderson has been actively involved in numerous projects and pilot studies to more fully understand protected species interactions with commercial fishing operations.
Earlier projects involved investigating hook sink rates on pelagic longliners with more recent projects investigating protected species interactions on inshore bottom trawlers and in both pelagic and bottom longline fisheries using Electronic Monitoring (EM).
Further investigations using EM are ongoing.
McElderry,H;,Schrader,J; Anderson,S. (2008) Electronic monitoring to assess protected species interations in New Zealand longline fisheries: A Pilot Study. New Zealand Aquatic Environmental and Biodiversity Report No.24. 39p
J Molloy; C Keith; S Anderson (2000) Solving incidental capture of seabirds on pelagic longline vessels – progress in New Zealand. DoC Science poster No.30.