According to the certification body, Moody Marine Ltd the New Zealand EEZ southern blue whiting pelagic trawl fishery has entered full assessment. Initially Moody Marine Ltd seeks to open a dialogue with all organisations or individuals with a direct interest in the fishery. Public comments are invited to help processing the assessment in a transparent way. The comments should be relevant to the status of the stock, ecosystem interactions or fishery management practices.
The location of the fishery is within the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in five management areas (SBW1, SBW6A, SBW6B, SBW6I and SBW6R). Southern blue whiting are almost entirely restricted in distribution to sub-Antarctic waters. They are dispersed throughout the Campbell Plateau and Bounty Platform for much of the year, but during August and September they aggregate to spawn near the Campbell Islands, on Pukaki Rise, on Bounty Platform, and near Auckland Islands over depths of 250–600 metres.
The fishing used in this fishery is pelagic trawl. The fishery is managed by the
Ministry of Fisheries through a quota management system (QMS) based on individual transferable quotas (ITQs). Within the QMS, fisheries sustainability objectives are achieved by setting a total allowable catch (TAC) that is consistent with the productivity of a fishery.
It is mentioned that the fishery has a partnership approach to fisheries management between the Deepwater Group and the Ministry of Fisheries. This is underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding that sets out the agreement between the Ministry of Fisheries and the Deepwater Group to work in partnership, outlining the prime areas and workplan to better manage deepwater fisheries. The main commercial markets for this fishery are Europe, Japan, Russia and Spain.
