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Two snapper longliners from Leigh, Dave Moore and Darrin Fabricius, have won a supreme Seabird Smart Award for outstanding leadership and commitment to looking after New Zealand seabirds.
Their award recognises the fact that they voluntarily installed cameras on their company’s longline boats in 2016 and have monitored for seabird captures ever since.
Moore and Fabricius are directors of Wild Fish (NZ) Ltd and operate a snapper longline operation in Area 1, along the north-east coast of the North Island. They supply their catch exclusively to Leigh Fisheries.
Minister for Oceans and Fisheries David Parker and Minister of Conservation Kiritapu Allan presented the awards at an online ceremony late last month.
“We are aware of the public’s growing interest in transparency of fishing operations and we want to be at the forefront of this,” Moore says. “Our longline vessels fish in the Hauraki Gulf, a sensitive area for threatened seabirds, particularly black petrels and flesh-footed shearwaters. We consider it a privilege to fish in the area.”
With more than two million hooks set for the 2021 fishing season, and full camera coverage, Moore says there were no black petrel deaths on any of his six vessels.
“We pride ourselves on this achievement, with all credit to our young skippers, who share this award with us.
“The survival of the black petrel is a constant consideration and now, most of our skippers have never fished without cameras on board.”
Moore says Wild Fish has three aims – quality, consistency, and safety and responsibility.
Seabird mitigation measures include tori lines (a line with streamers and a buoy that make the birds shy away from the longlines when they are being set), setting lines early in the morning or in the dark, and weighting the lines so they sink quickly.
Wild Fish vessels have had both Ministry of Primary Industries and NIWA observers on board to verify its seabird mitigation practices, as well as validating information on the cameras.
“No fisherman actually wants cameras on their boats, just like most people wouldn’t want a camera in their workplace every day, but they do provide transparency.”
Moore says seabird protection is about more than just what commercial longliners are doing.
“There are a huge number of recreational fishers out there, as well as land-based activities and predators such as rats. Protecting the birds is about looking at the whole picture.”
The Seabird Smart Awards are an initiative of the Southern Seabirds Trust. The trust is an alliance of representatives from the seafood industry, government, WWF-New Zealand and Te Ohu Kaimoana.
Trust supporters include environmental groups, eco-tourism operators, recreational fishers, fishing gear retailers and seabird ecologists.
