July 15, 2016
Land and sea effort for sustainabilty
The head of the largest Maori seafood company is warning of the impact of land use on coastal fisheries.
Aotearoa Fisheries has renamed itself Moana New Zealand, and launched new branding emphasising its connection to a pristine environment.
But Carl Carrington says that environment has to be fought for, as the company discovered when it conducted a world-leading ecosystem services review of the Marlborough Sounds paua fishery.
He says biomass was dropping, not because of commercial or recreational overfishing but because of run-off from farming and other land-based activity.
"We thought this was all about climate change, it actually turns out it's about sedimentation which is destroying the kelp forests. Up to 70-80 percent of kelp has disappeared in certain parts. It's all to do with the run off from dairying, beef farms, deforestation, all that kind of stuff," he says.
Carl Carrington says the fishing industry can’t sold the problem alone, and there needs to be a total primary industry strategy to drive sustainability.
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