Fisheries New Zealand is assessing whether a commercial landing exception should be provided for five highly migratory species managed under the Quota Management System, when caught by surface longline and eaten by predators.

The five species are bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna, southern bluefin tuna, pacific bluefin tuna and swordfish.

The New Zealand law or system used to achieve sustainable fishing is called the Quota Management System - QMS.

Under the QMS, a yearly catch limit or Total Allowable Catch is set for every fish stock. By controlling the amount of fish taken from each stock, the QMS helps keep New Zealand fisheries sustainable.

Predation by toothed cetaceans - whales and dolphins, sharks, and large cephalopods - for example, squid -  on highly migratory species caught in surface longline fisheries is a well-known problem globally.

These events are considered to be largely unavoidable due to difficulties in predicting and avoiding their occurrence and can have big economic impacts on fishing operations.

Based on the unavoidability of these events, Fisheries New Zealand is proposing to provide for an exception.

The proposed exception would allow commercial fishers to return leftover parts of any of the five species caught by surface longline, that have been damaged by predation to such an extent that the fish is unfit for human consumption.

The Ministry of Primary Industries is asking for feedback on this proposal. Click here for full details - www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/commercial-fishers-landing-exception-fish-predation-in-surface-longline

Consultation is open from February 2 to March 1, 2024.