Efforts to help reduce the number of rare black petrels being accidentally killed during commercial fishing have earned Leigh Fisheries operations manager Tom Searle an environmental award.
Searle has ensured around 35 long-line skippers, almost all the company does business with, have attended a Seabird Smart training workshop on how to reduce bycatch, along with helping prepare seabird risk management plans for each vessel, Southern Seabird Solutions Trust chairman Bill Mansfield says.
He has also helped coordinate trips for fishermen to the black petrel colony on Great Barrier Island/Aotea, where most of the remaining birds nest, run by seabird advocate Biz Bell.
“No one wants to catch these birds, and increased protection is where the industry is headed,” Searle says.
While using the equipment and documentation does add to each crew’s workload, they accept that’s now part of their job, he says.
Black petrels are returning to the Hauraki Gulf from South America to breed, and fishing industry, government and conservation representatives have been working to reduce their deaths.
One of our rarest sea birds, their population is reducing by about 1.4 per cent annually, risking extinction.
The working group relies on trust and strong relationships to work, Forest & Bird seabird advocate Karen Baird says.
Fishers are required to report seabird captures, and observers have been on 30 bottom longline trips totalling 372 days in the Snapper 1 area since 2013 when the seabird action plan was agreed, an MPI spokesman says.
“Rules and regulations are all well and good but it is the fishers themselves who are out there interacting with the birds who have to take personal responsibility to reduce seabird captures,” Baird says. “There are encouraging signs,” she says.
Two seabird liaison officers now talk to long-line vessel owners, skippers and crews in the gulf and give advice on techniques and equipment that can be used to reduce seabird bycatch.
Observers are planned for 205 days this year, mostly at peak bird feeding times. A camera trial is underway, with one of the Leigh boats involved.
Results from the 2013/2014 fishing year have yet to be peer reviewed, and MPI says gauging the initiative’s success are will become clearer after each season.
2015 Fairfax New Zealand Limited