Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

AEBAR 2012: Protected species: Seabirds
New Zealand is a signatory to a number of international conventions and agreements to
provide for the management of threats to seabirds, including:
• the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS);
• the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (insofar as it relates to the conservation of
non-target, associated and dependent species);
• the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD);
• the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS);
• the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) International Plan of Action for
Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (IPOA);
• the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the interpretive Best Practice
Technical Guidelines;
• the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP)
The ACAP agreement requires that parties achieve and maintain a favourable conservation
status for a number of albatross and petrel taxa. Under the IPOA-seabirds, New Zealand
developed a National Plan of Action (NPOA) to reduce the incidental catch of seabirds in
New Zealand fisheries in 2004 (MFish and DOC 2004) and recently (2012) consulted on a
revised NPOA-seabirds (http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Consultations/npoa+seabirds/default.htm). The
scopes of the 2004 NPOA (and the 2012 draft) are broader than the original IPOA to facilitate
a co-ordinated and long-term approach to reducing the impact of fishing activity on seabirds.
Management of fishing-related mortality of seabirds is consistent with Fisheries 2030 Objective 6:
Manage impacts of fishing and aquaculture. Further, the management actions follow Strategic Action
6.2: Set and monitor environmental standards, including for threatened and protected species and
seabed impacts.
All National Fisheries Plans except that for freshwater fisheries are relevant to the management of
fishing-related mortality of seabirds.
Under the National Deepwater Plan, the objective most relevant for management of seabirds is
Management Objective 2.5: Manage deepwater and middle-depth fisheries to avoid or minimise
adverse effects on the long-term viability of endangered, threatened and protected species.
Management objective 7 of the National Fisheries Plan for Highly Migratory Species (HMS) is to
“Implement an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, taking into account associated and
dependent species”. This comprises four components: Avoid, remedy, or mitigate the adverse effects
of fishing on associated and dependent species, including through maintaining food-chain
relationships; Minimise unwanted bycatch and maximise survival of incidental catches of protected
species in HMS fisheries, using a risk management approach; Increase the level and quality of
information available on the capture of protected species; and Recognise the intrinsic values of HMS
and their ecosystems, comprising predators, prey, and protected species.
The Environment Objective is the same for all groups of fisheries in the draft National Fisheries Plan
for Inshore Finfish and the draft National Fisheries Plan for Inshore Shellfish, to “Minimise adverse
effects of fishing on the aquatic environment, including on biological diversity”. The draft National
Fisheries Plan for Freshwater has the same objective but is unlikely to be relevant to management of
fishing-related mortality of seabirds.
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