THE MARINE BIODIVERSITY AND FISHERIES CATCHES OF THE KERMADEC ISLAND GROUP M.L.D. Palomares, S. Harper, D. Zeller, and D. Pauly A report prepared for the Global Ocean Legacy project of the Pew Environment Group by the Sea Around Us Project Fisheries Centre The University of British Columbia 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 Daniel Pauly RECONSTRUCTION OF THE MARINE CATCHES FOR THE KERMADEC ISLANDS (1950-2010) ..................... 3 Kyrstn Zylich, Sarah Harper and Dirk Zeller THE MARINE BIODIVERSITY OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS IN FISHBASE AND SEALIFEBASE ................... 9 Maria Lourdes D. Palomares, Patricia M.E. Sorongon, Marianne Pan, Jennifer C. Espedido, Lealde U. Pacres, Ace Amarga, Vina Angelica Parducho, Arlene Sampang, and Nicolas Bailly APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................................. 21 APPENDIX A1: SPECIES OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS IN FISHBASE .................................................................. 21 APPENDIX A2: SPECIES OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS IN SEALIFEBASE ........................................................... 25 APPENDIX B1: BIBLIOGRAPHY FISHBASE ...................................................................................................... 40 APPENDIX B2: BIBLIOGRAPHY SEALIFEBASE ................................................................................................ 43 1 Foreword, D. Pauly FOREWORD There is a multitude of ways one can look at the oceans. The one encountered most frequently is that they are full of wonders and mysteries – which is true. Unfortunately, this view often takes extreme forms, for example culminating in the cliché that we know more about the backside of the moon than about the oceans – which is not true. Actually, much of what we know about the backside of the moon is its surface topography, the equivalent of the ocean’s bathymetry, which we do know fairly well. What is often lacking – on Earth – is the documentation of life in the ocean. But here again, the main problem – I would suggest – is not necessarily that marine biodiversity is not ‘known’ (apart from genuinely new taxa that continue to be discovered), but that we are not aware that thousands of species descriptions are available in the musty tomes of reports of scientific expeditions and other products by taxonomists, who usually described ‘dead’ species, i.e., without reference to the ecosystems of which the species they describe are functioning parts. This is changing, however, as large databases are created which not only can present historic species descriptions, but also connect these species to the ecosystems in which they are embedded, and thus make them ‘live’ – at least in our imagination. This report, the second in a series (the first covering the Pitcairn Island group), presents an account of the marine biodiversity of the Kermadec Islands, one of the most ‘remote’ archipelagos of the world (although ‘remote’ is a very relative term – remote from what?). At present, the species count is 218 fish in FishBase and 1,006 non-fish species in SeaLifeBase, two databases demonstrating, if it was really necessary, that we know more about the oceans than about the backside of the moon. This report also documents the sporadic fisheries that have taken place in the Kermadec Islands’ EEZ. Being of low intensity, these fisheries have likely not affected biodiversity as much as fisheries do elsewhere. Hence the suggestion that turning the entire archipelago and surrounding waters into a nature reserve would protect forever a good chunk of the south-western Pacific biodiversity. This is the second version of our report, replacing a version issued in March 2012, which included a few infelicities, now corrected. Daniel Pauly Principal Investigator Sea Around Us Project Vancouver, 25 May 2012 2 The Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries Catches of the Kermadec Island Group RECONSTRUCTION OF THE MARINE CATCHES 1 FOR THE KERMADEC ISLANDS (1950-2010) Kyrstn Zylich, Sarah Harper and Dirk Zeller Sea Around Us Project, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT The Kermadec Islands are an isolated and uninhabited cluster of islands which have been the site of relatively little fishing. The total domestic (New Zealand) catch from the Kermadec Islands’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters for the 1950-2010 time period was approximately 971 t. Foreign fishing was also estimated, as these fisheries had a greater impact on the area. The foreign fishery catch was estimated at 14,475 t over the time period. Approximately 80% of this was caught by South Korean vessels, with the other 20% caught by Japanese vessels. At present, there is very little fishing occurring in the Kermadec Region (only 28 t domestic and zero foreign catch in 2010). INTRODUCTION The Kermadec Islands are the northernmost point of New Zealand (Figure 1). The group consists of four island groups which are (with the major islands listed) as follows: 1) Raoul Island, Meyer Island, and the Herald Islets; 2) Macauley Island and Haszard Islet; 3) Curtis and Cheeseman Islands; and 4) L’Esperance and Havre Rocks (Francis et al., 1987). The Kermadec Islands are peaks of volcanic formations rising from the Kermadec Ridge (Francis et al., 1987). Although the Kermadecs are part of New Zealand, the EEZ surrounding the islands is nearly separated from the EEZ of the main New Zealand EEZ (surrounding North and South Island), and thus we can refer specifically to the Kermadec Islands’ EEZ (612,047 km2) (Amelia Connell, pers. comm., New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries). The Figure 1. Map of the Kermadec Islands and its EEZ. Raoul Kermadec region is formed by the subduction of Island is shown as well as the connection of the Kermadec the Pacific Plate under the Australian Plate. Islands EEZ to the New Zealand EEZ surrounding North and South Island. This not only creates an area of frequent earthquakes and active volcanoes, but also forms the Kermadec Trench which is over 10,000 m deep (Wright, 2010). The Kermadec Islands are an important locale of unique and diverse terrestrial flora and fauna, and marine life due to their isolation and subtropical location which features a mixture of tropical, subtropical, and temperate species (Gardner et al., 2006). In 1934, the islands were declared a Flora and Fauna Reserve and then a Nature Reserve in 19772. Starting in 1987, the New Zealand Department of Conservation has managed the islands and now have permanent staff and volunteers on Raoul Island who 1 Cite as: Zylich, K., Harper, S., Zeller, D., 2012. Reconstruction of the marine catches for the Kermadec Islands (1950-2010). In: Palomares, M.L.D., Zylich, K., Harper, S., Zeller, D., Pauly, D. (eds.), The Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries Catches of the Kermadec Island Group. A report prepared for the Global Ocean Legacy project of the Pew Environment Group, p. 3-8. The Sea Around Us Project, Fisheries Centre, UBC, Vancouver, Canada. 2 www.thekermadecs.org/islands [accessed January 10, 2012] 3 Reconstruction of marine catches, Zylich et al. are responsible for monitoring meteorological and volcanic activity, weed and pest control, and enforcing regulations of the nature and marine reserves2. The islands are uninhabited except for the conservation staff on Raoul Island3. The territorial seas (12-mile limit surrounding the coastal edge) around each island and rock were declared marine reserves in 1990 (Eddy, 2011). This reserve protects 748,000 ha (7,480 km2) of ocean (Gardner et al., 2006). Due to the fact that the Kermadec Islands are part of New Zealand, they are not typically evaluated on their own. The purpose of this report is to assess how much fishing actually occurs in the isolated region of New Zealand’s EEZ which surrounds the Kermadec Islands. MATERIALS AND METHODS To estimate the total fisheries catch within the Kermadec Island EEZ, both domestic and foreign fleets were assessed. For the Kermadecs, only large-scale commercial fleets need to be considered, the islands are uninhabited and there is no localized small-scale fishing occurring. New Zealand’s EEZ is divided into ten Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs). The Kermadec Island’s EEZ is categorized as its own management area, FMA10, and therefore, the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries (known hereafter as the Ministry of Fisheries) collects data which is specific to the Kermadec Region. However, these data are only available starting in 1990. Prior to this, data relating to foreign fishing were available through various South Pacific Commission (SPC) reports. As for domestic fishing, New Zealand did not have a deep-water fleet prior to 1990, and thus did not fish Kermadec waters at that time (Glenn Simmons, New Zealand Asia Institute, pers. comm.). The Ministry of Fisheries website was also consulted to fit scientific names to the common names presented in the reported data4. Domestic fisheries Domestic large-scale commercial catches for the 1990-2010 time period were obtained from the Ministry of Fisheries and were accepted as reported data. There were only a few changes made to the data; this affected taxonomic classification of the data, but not the tonnage value.