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Ministers have bowed to pressure from environmental groups and introduced new rules around catching sharks.
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Conservation Minister Nick Smith say the Government has confirmed its decision to ban shark finning .
They say the timetable for implementing the ban has been brought forward in response to 45,300 submissions on the National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.
Some 45,205 of the submissions were on forms generated by various groups. There were 10 submissions from environment groups, 17 from industry, three from iwi and 63 individual submissions from the public.
“We have taken on board submitters’ concerns that the timetable for banning shark finning should be sooner,” Mr Guy says.
A first tranche of shark species will be covered by the shark finning ban from 1 October 2014, a second tranche from 1 October 2015, and only the highly migratory blue sharks will be left until 1 October 2016. “This tightened timetable is achievable and puts in place these new protections for sharks as quickly as possible,” he says.
Shark finning is usually defined as the practice of cutting the fins off a shark and returning it to the sea alive. That is already illegal under the Animal Welfare Act. Under the extended ban, it will also become illegal to catch a shark, kill it, remove its fins and dump the carcass at sea.
Because some species of shark will spoil and taint other fish in the hold, it is likely fishers will dump the whole body overboard rather than bring it back to shore, where the carcass would probably end up in a landfill.
Green Party oceans spokesperson Gareth Hughes says the move marks the success of a five-year campaign by the Green Party and over a dozen NGOs, under the New Zealand Shark Alliance banner.
“Shark finning is an incredibly wasteful and inhumane practise; it is like killing an elephant just for its tusks. Today, we can proudly join nearly 100 countries all over the globe that have banned shark finning,” Mr Hughes says.
The campaign created a highly emotional response, with claims that while cutting fins off live sharks is already illegal in New Zealand, “the senseless and wasteful practice of killing sharks just for their fins and then dumping their bodies back in the sea is not.”
A submission from Te Ohu Kaimoana said the quota management system already provides an appropriate management regime for commercial fishing of shark.
“We consider it is important not to be driven by a situation that exists elsewhere in the world, and bind ourselves to measures that are not necessary in New Zealand,” it said.
Seafood New Zealand chief executive Tim Pankhurst welcomed the ministry’s intention to work with other Pacific countries on gathering information on the populations and behaviour of highly migratory shark species.
“There has been a most unwarranted assumption that if a species is endangered in one part of the world, then it must be endangered here. But the reality is that the Quota Management System prevents that happening. Any work that provides better information on whether there are abundant stocks for any particular species, or an earlier warning of a species in decline, must be good both for conservation and sustainable harvesting,” he says.
All the evidence shows blue sharks are plentiful in New Zealand waters, and they are prolific breeders. One blue shark may have more than 100 pups at one time.”
Mr Pankhurst says in New Zealand waters no sharks are targeted for their fins.
“The blue sharks are captured as bycatch when the vessels are fishing for tuna. The tuna and sharks are attracted to the same hooks. If we want to avoid the sharks, or safely release them back to the sea unharmed, then we need different fishing technology. This can’t be invented overnight,” he says.
The National Plan of Action estimated the total value of shark exports in 2012 at $30.1 million, including 60.4 tonnes of dried shark fins valued at $1.7 million and another 125.4 tonnes of frozen fins at $3.2 million.
Demand fell off sharply last year, especially from China, with only 4.8 tonnes of dried shark fins exported in the six months to June.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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