Award winners keep seabirds safe

The outstanding seabird conservation work of a deepwater fishing trawler has been officially recognised today.

Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister, Phil Heatley has presented the Seabird Safe Award for 2010 to the captain and crew of the Sealord deepwater fishing trawler F.V Thomas Harrison. The Seabird Safe Awards are managed by Southern Seabird Solutions Trust, a group working with fishers to reduce seabird bycatch.

The Thomas Harrison has been the focus of a three-year-trial of different ways of reducing the risk of fishing to seabirds like albatrosses and petrels. This work is a collaborative effort between the fishing industry and government departments.

Seabirds are attracted to fishing boats in search of an easy source of food. This can put them in danger of being accidentally caught or injured when they take baited hooks or get hit by heavy steel trawl cables when distracted while feeding on fish scraps.

The trials tested different ways of treating offal and fish trimmings which are discharged by trawlers and can attract seabirds.

During the trials the Thomas Harrison, her factory operations and crew bore many disruptions. She hosted a number of government observers. As well video cameras being mounted, numerous refits, adjustments and modifications were carried out.

"Nobody wants to catch seabirds and the crew of the Thomas Harrison, along with Sealord and the Deepwater Group have been working hard to find ways to solve these issues and keep seabirds out of harm's way," Mr Heatley said.

Other finalists in this year's awards are the Deepwater Group* Seabird Liaison Officer John Cleal and the Leigh Commercial Fishermen's Association.

John Cleal has worked tirelessly, travelling around the country's fishing ports and working one on one with fishing trawler captains and crew on the best ways to avoid catching seabirds. He has been available by phone around the clock to provide real time advice and support to trawler captains at sea whenever they need it.

As a previous fishing fleet manager John has a lot of respect in the fishing industry and gets alongside the skippers and crew to provide practical tips and assistance, drawing on his wealth of knowledge and experience in the field.

The Leigh longline fleet were early pioneers of ways to avoid accidentally catching seabirds on fishing longlines and have been leaders ever since. They developed seabird safe fishing practices for their members and have had a Code of Practice in place since 1992.

The Association puts a lot of work into helping new fishermen to set up mitigation gear like bird scaring streamers on their boats and making sure they know how to use it properly so they can avoid catching seabirds.

Finding ways to reduce the risks of fishing to seabirds is a complex issue, every fishing vessel is different and different areas of New Zealand's vast exclusive economic zone present different challenges that need to be worked through says Mr Heatley.

"The work put in by this year's award winners and finalists shows there is real commitment to work with government and other interested groups to find ways to solve these issues and keep our seabirds safe," he said.

The Southern Seabird Solutions Trust is an alliance that includes representatives from the fishing industry, government, Maori organisations and environmental groups. The Trust supports and encourages fishermen in Southern Ocean fisheries to adopt responsible fishing practices.

*The Deepwater Group a fishing industry body representing deepwater quota owners.