October 24, 2012
Active New Zealand presence could help tooth fish
Labour MP Shane Jones says New Zealand needs to keep an active presence in deep sea fisheries in the region, such as the Ross Sea.
The 25-nation Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is meeting in Hobart this week to discuss proposals for a reserve in the sea, which lies off the section of the ice continent under New Zealand control.
Conservation groups want a far more extensive ban on fishing than the reserves proposed by New Zealand and the United States.
Mr Jones, a former Māori fisheries commission chair, says the presence of New Zealand fishing fleets in the sea is positive, because they can deter pirates.
"There are other fishing nations around the world. Their fleets are subsidised, and if they could have the opportunity to clean out fisheries in our part of the Southern Hemisphere, I have no doubt they would give it a go. We have to be not only vigilant about our own quota-based system, in our own territorial waters but assume a position of leadership and strength north in the Pacific and down and around the Antarctic," he says.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd