The fishing industry is at a loss to understand why sweeping closures of New Zealand’s coastline to fishing have been proposed to protect Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins when there is no evidence to support the need, New Zealand Seafood Industry Council chief executive Owen Symmans said today.
"No one has any idea whether the numbers of dolphins are increasing or decreasing. There have been no recent surveys. In some parts of the country where restrictions have been proposed there have been no dolphins seen for years, if ever."
The number of deaths attributed to fishing is actually very small. Since 2003 there have been no reported deaths of Maui’s dolphins from commercial fishing net entanglements.
"The tragedy of this is that these measures may do very little to protect the dolphins but may put people out of work," said Mr Symmans. "We need to base decisions on facts to ensure the best possible outcomes for dolphins and people."
"We have already supported various voluntary and regulatory closures. The Threat Management Plan (TMP) does not provide any evidence to justify additional closures. It also doesn’t provide any analysis on other factors affecting Maui’s dolphin mortality, such as natural causes, predation and disease," said Mr Symmans. Option 3 in the TMP would close more than half of the New Zealand coastline.
He said the industry was happy to work with the Ministers of Conservation and Fisheries to put in place protection measures where there was a proven risk. To date the case for that risk had not been made.
