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The Royal New Zealand Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessel HMNZS OTAGO has successfully completed its first patrol of the season in the Southern Ocean - one of the world’s most challenging environments.

“It is important to New Zealand and the world that we protect the fragile marine environment of the Southern Ocean by helping to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing,” Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully and Primary Industries Minister David Carter today announced a new convention to manage fisheries across the South Pacific.

The convention establishes the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), which will manage waters from Western Australia to South America, including the Tasman Sea and South Pacific Ocean.

“This is the culmination of six years of work by the New Zealand Government,” Mr McCully says. New Zealand co-sponsored the negotiations, alongside Chile and Australia.