NEWSLETTEReco OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATIONlink ORGANISATIONS OF NEW ZEALAND www.eco.org.nz APRIL-MAY 2016 New Zealand needs to reform fisheries management Research published in mid-May by Auckland, Oxford and Vancouver academics on fisheries catch mis-re- porting is very welcome. This is a welcome, very carefully researched recon- struction of actual catch rather than reported catch. They show over 6 decades, the divergence between what New Zealand reported to the Food and Agricul- ture Organisation, FAO, and the actual catch, is that actual catch is 2.7 times greater than that reported. The research is part of a series of studies by Professor Daniel Pauly and his team at the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre and the global project, The Sea Around Us. The methodology uses a series of source materi- Actual catch was estimated to be 2.7 times the catch report- als. These include the official statistics but those are ed by New Zealand to the FAO. compared with many other sources, and illuminated too by interviews to ground truth official figures, and and weaknesses of their own work, has stood the test to look for explanations of events and discrepencies. of many different fisheries in other parts of the world. This methodology, which is meticulously checked and critiqued by the authors who identify both strengths It is no surprise though, that the industrial scale fish- ing interests, some officials, the Minister and Prime IN THIS ISSUE: NZ needs to reform fisheries management 1 ECO Conference 2016: Climate Incorporated Societies Act proposed changes 3 Change and water issues are our Health and Safety Act changes in force now 4 themes Past ECOLinks, Volunteers, & ECO Archives 4 New Exec Members - is that you? 5 An exciting range of speakers and OECD team reviews NZ’s environmental performance 6 workshops is being put together for this Resource Legislation Bill amends Conservation & other Acts 7 conference to be held in Auckland from Environmental Protocol to Antarctic Treaty - 25th Anniversay 10 13th to 14th August, at the Wesley Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, & Marine Protected Areas 11 Community Centre in Mt Roskill. Fonterra Coal-fired boiler a “death star” 13 Te Kuha, China & the price of Coal 13 More details to follow soon. Register your Biosecurity needs more priority & funding 14 interest in attending, volunteering or do- Guava morth - another biosecurity mess? 15 nating towards our conference - or all New ECO member: Kiwis Against Seabed Mining 16 three! - by emailing the ECO Office. More Obituary: Remembering Bob Fantl 17 information and registrations will be posted on the website and in Tieke soon. Obituary Tom Hay - forest campaigner 18 www.eco.org.nz 1 ECOlink April-May 2016 NZ needs reform of fisheries management Minister, and some NIWA scientists have contested the research which reveals the credibility gap in official statistics and industry reporting. Daniel Pauly, Dr Glenn Simmons, Dr Christina String- er and their various teams have joined the other aca- demics and applied this method to New Zealand and have focused on the system failures of the fish catch reporting systems in the New Zealand Quota manage- ment system (QMS). The report found that “For the years 1950 to 2010, the reconstructed total marine catch of New Zealand (by New Zealand and foreign flagged vessels) is estimated to be 38.1 million tonnes. This indicates that actual catch was 2.7 times the 14 million t reported to the FAO on behalf of New Zealand for the same time peri- Eminent fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly explaining the his- od. The extended reconstructed estimate for 1950-2013 tory behind the Sea Around US Survey. is 40 mt, comprised of 19 mt nationally reported, 5.8 mt of invisible landings, 14.7 million t of unreported managing for harvesting fish.” dumped commercial catch, and 549,000 t of customary and recreational catches.” The fisheries managers are doing a review of the QMS, but these key issues were missing from the terms of Cath Wallace said “the research shows that the level reference set by or for the Review. Fisheries manage- of unreported catch and mis-reported catch by indus- ment has long been done with political pressure from trial commercial fishing is staggeringly huge – much the big industry players preventing attention to matters greater than the government scientists allowed for, but in the public good and of concern to the smaller fishing consistent with the reports that sometimes surface from enterprises. people in the industry.” There are already requirements in the Fisheries Act “The incentives to cheat are huge and driven by greed 1996 for “avoiding, remedying or mitigating adverse and flaws in the design of the fisheries Quota Manage- effects of fishing on the marine environment”. The ment System (QMS). Measuring catch is fundamental Ministry for Primary Industry and its predecessors to the QMS, and we have had decades of mis-report- do little about this except in relation to seabirds and ing.” marine mammals – the rest of the ecosystem is mostly ignored by fisheries managers and industrial commer- “These concerns about the QMS design and manage- cial fishing companies alike. ment neglect of environmental damage have been raised by ECO and others in fisheries management “There is a heavy reliance on rhetoric such as that New meetings for decades but have been brushed aside.” Zealand’s fisheries management is world leading – but there is little actual substance to this. “It is well over time to reform the QMS to include cru- cial reporting issues as well as avoiding and reporting One much cited international study that did compare on impacts on the environment. New Zealand fisheries management with others had a senior ministry scientist in the team. One of the big- Incentives and penalties to use less damaging methods gest fisheries, orange roughy, was mysteriously miss- of fishing and to avoid adverse effects on the marine ing from the consideration of stocks in New Zealand environment are missing from New Zealand fisheries – yet it has been the poster child of depleted stocks and management. The Act requires this but it is not done. fisheries management dominated by pressure from the commercial interests of deep water fishers. “The Precautionary Principle to protect the environ- ment should be put in the Fisheries Act but political In contrast, the Simmons & Pauly et al paper gives us pressure by the big fishing companies blocked this last truly independent research with multiple methods of time it was proposed.” catch assessment. There are cross checks built in and it uses well established, internationally accepted methods “Management should recognize and provide for eco- for this. There are decades of experience and refine- system based management of fisheries, instead of just ment of these methods and they are evidence based. ECOlink Apri-Mayl 2016 2 www.eco.org.nz Incorporated Societies changes Incorporated Societies Act proposed changes by Michael Pringle A draft exposure bill for a new Incorporated Socie- Royal Assent is not expected to be given until 2018 at ties Act has been released by the Ministry of Business the earliest, and societies will be given two years to and Innovation. The recommendation is to replace the update their Constitutions and a further two years at existing Act, which is now over 100 years old, with a least before full compliance is required. new Act. The Ministry is currently calling for submissions on There is a total of 23,700 incorporated societies in the draft bill and these can be made via the MBIE web- New Zealand, of which 35% are registered chari- site which is at this link: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info- ties, covering a broad range of activities including, services/business/business-law/incorporated-societies/ of course, groups like ours with an environment and incorporated-societies-bill-exposure-draft conservation focus. The 1908 Act does not set out the obligations of those who are involved in the running of Hui e! has a copy of the MBIE presentation on the ex- incorporated societies. It gives little guidance on how posure draft, and the Hui e! response, on their website disputes should be resolved, and does not set out what at this link: http://www.huie.org.nz/thinking-pieces/ is legally required to run an Incorporated Society. download-a-copy-of-the-presentation-from-the-incor- porated-societies-seminars/ The new Act proposes to establish more clarity on officers’ obligations, how to resolve disputes, how to They are also running further consultative seminars enter into contracts, and sets out the limits of personal on the bill at various locations around New Zealand; liability of officers (limited to that set out in the soci- check out their website for a location near you. ety’s constitution). • Fish consumed by fishers and not reported. The study reveals convincing evidence that the fishing industry itself should not be trusted to report accurate- There is an opportunity now for a significant reassess- ly. We must have stronger incentives and regulation ment of fisheries management in New Zealand. for the protection of the environment and true inde- pendence of research. The cost recovery system, the industry grip on the re- search agenda, their habit of threatening and intimidat- The report documents: ing researchers with funding cuts, and their dismissive • Invisible landings which are not reported or are attitude to concerns about the environment, all need to under-reported; change. • Dumped catch including due to low value, dam- aged catch, smaller or larger than the economic Fisheries decision making needs to include the wider size; degraded catch; lack of hold or refrigeration community and a wider set of values than just harvest space; poor quality fish etc values.