New Zealand’s pro-industry stance at the annual South Pacific high seas forum is causing friction with traditional allies, who have labelled it “disingenuous” and “disappointing”, according to an observer.
Speaking to Newsroom after the second day of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation’s annual meeting in Ecuador, non-governmental observer Karli Thomas says it’s clear the organisation’s members feel New Zealand is going back on things that were passed by consensus at last year’s meeting.
New Zealand proposed restricting seamount trawling to just 30 percent of seamount areas in the South Pacific at last year’s meeting, but didn’t hand in the science in time for the 2024 meeting, with Australia submitting the work instead.
New Zealand is the only nation trawling seamounts in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation zone.
Thomas, of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, says New Zealand, under instruction from new Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, is now actively blocking the measure from going ahead – after it had been in the works for more than a year.
“You can imagine how invested countries are in keeping a measure that took so long to achieve, but New Zealand is turning its back on that and failing to implement key parts of the measure.”
If New Zealand does block consensus being reached at the meeting, which happens largely behind closed doors, it will mean the 2023 agreement would be invalidated.
International relations
Thomas says the actions are a foreign affairs liability for New Zealand. The country is being “belligerent”, she says.
“We’re already an outlier as the only country that is still bottom trawling in the Pacific, and now we have our usual allies using words like disingenuous and disappointing to describe New Zealand’s proposals and behaviour in a meeting like this.
“You start to see how isolated we’re becoming on a world stage.”
“If the Minister of Fisheries thinks that he’s doing the industry a favour by turning his back on sustainable fishing and behaving like this and burning bridges with our allies in the Pacific, he’s really mistaken and it will have implications well beyond his portfolio.”
Karli Thomas, fishing forum observer
She says New Zealand is also getting no support on the floor for another proposal it submitted around carrying over catch allocation for orange roughy.
“If the Minister of Fisheries thinks that he’s doing the industry a favour by turning his back on sustainable fishing and behaving like this and burning bridges with our allies in the Pacific, he’s really mistaken and it will have implications well beyond his portfolio.”
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says New Zealand’s sudden shift signals to other nations that New Zealand cannot be relied on to stand by international commitments it has made.
“If the new Government does abandon New Zealand’s own proposal, it would not only be turning its back on agreements made with partners in the South Pacific, but also it would show that New Zealand is drifting towards choosing self-interest over the collective protection of the global commons.”
Clark says such “country first” politics had no place in deep sea conservation as one of the frontiers of the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
“A few tonnes of export seafood is not worth a fraction of the price New Zealand will pay for abandoning Pacific multilateralism, dragging down the performance of a Commission which it helped establish, and setting a precedent for disregarding international agreements which could be followed by others at great risk to the entire region.“
Taking stock
Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is unwilling to say much until the delegation has returned from Ecuador and won’t comment on the perspectives other countries may hold on New Zealand’s approach.
“The guts of the matter is we’re a new government and we’re taking stock of what are the long term implications for the continual shrinkage of available fishing opportunity in this areas.”
“This time around as the Fisheries Minister I’m keen to ensure that number one, we’re looking after our own people, looking after jobs and opportunities for economic development to benefit New Zealand.”
Shane Jones, Fisheries Minister
He says while New Zealand First has a long history of economic nationalism, with leader Winston Peters as Minister of Foreign Affairs, it also understands the importance of participation and different positions it occupies internationally.
“But this time around as the Fisheries Minister I’m keen to ensure that number one, we’re looking after our own people, looking after jobs and opportunities for economic development to benefit New Zealand.
“I don’t want that written out of the script as we go forward and move to finding common ground with other jurisdictions and nations.”
Jones says these economic nationalist leanings have become less common.
“We’ve had a period of time where other governments have naturally inclined towards the environment and have not been as robust as perhaps I am, on matters related to jobs, working families and economic revenue.”
Since taking office Jones, a former chairman of Sealord and member of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission, has come out as a strong advocate for the industry.
The industry has also expressed support for Jones and NZ First, with the party receiving a $50,000 loan from Sir Peter Vela, founder of one of the country’s largest commercial fishing operators, before the election.
In previous election cycles, Jones had received candidate donations from industry giant Talleys, Peter Talley himself, as well as Greymouth-based deep sea fishing firm Westfleet (half owned by Sealord). Candidate donations for the 2023 election have not yet been released.
That close relationship with industry was enough for the 2017 Labour-led coalition to block Jones or other NZ First MPs from taking the fisheries portfolio in government.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has, however, expressed confidence in Jones’s ability to carry out his ministerial duties, when pressed by Greens co-leader James Shaw over New Zealand’s actions at the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation meeting.
Isn’t it a good thing that people always donate to political parties with no expectation of favourable treatment.
Perhaps a forced screening of some Planet Earth III episodes may give the self entitled industry and politicians a fresh perspective!
Hector’s dolphins and the critically endangered Māui dolphin will become even more at risk.
“Hector’s dolphins are one of the world’s smallest marine mammals and are only found in New Zealand’s waters – mostly around the South Island – with a population of about 15,000. The North Island subspecies, the Māui dolphin, is critically endangered with an estimated 54 remaining.”
And, “A 2019 Ministry of Primary Industry paper estimated about 58 Hector’s dolphins were killed a year in commercial fishing bycatch”. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/second-hectors-dolphin-killed-as-fishing-bycatch-in-two-months-as-greens-propose-new-protection-bill/GQL5K2LRGFHALDUUCWH67FFLQA/
However, bycatch has apparently been underreported:
“A new mandate requiring cameras onboard fishing vessels has revealed an increase in the number of Hector’s and Maui dolphins being caught in nets and killed.
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“In the first six months of the camera rollout, we’re seeing an increase of 50%, and that is a conservative estimate of 50%. They’re easily going to hit 100% increase,” Sea Sheppard managing director Michael Lawry said.
“It’s fairly obvious that [bycatch] has been underreported.” https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/01/11/calls-for-fishing-bans-as-cameras-reveal-dolphins-in-nets/
At what point does commercial fishing become overfishing?
Seals have been found dying of starvation around NZ coastlines.
“The Department of Conservation (DoC) is investigating after a high number of seals were found dead on coastlines around the country.
“Since September, 183 seals have been found dead on Kaikōura’s coastline, the latest figures from DoC show. ..
“Since August, 159 dead seals have been found dead in Napier, 78 reported in Tauranga, and 12 in Auckland.
“Tests for disease from dead seals in these locations have so far been negative. However, autopsies on some dead seals from Hawke’s Bay confirmed starvation as a cause of their deaths.” https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/10/hundreds-of-seals-mysteriously-dying-across-new-zealand.html
What an amazingly high standard of ethical governance and moral behaviour this minister is displaying! Dr Ian Fraser told us so eloquently the truth about Mustang Shane “He must be front runner for being Parliament’s biggest and most vocal anachronism.”
Good grief. What will this rag tag government do next?
NZ was as recently as last year an icon for the world regarding our care for conservation and climate change policies
It’s time we begin to at least think about repairing our political donations system, to bring about an end to the purchase of political influence and any resulting corruption.
Eg, All donations could go into a common “Democracy!” pool, to be divided up among the parties according to number of members. I’m sure that would go down wonderfully well. 🙂 Considering the number of times our MPs claim to be governing for “all New Zealanders”, this would be their chance to demonstrate it. If they genuinely believe that is what they are doing then they would not object to such a plan.
Here’s what is happening in Aus, where a Minerology (mining) corporation is purchasing their man for $7 million: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-01/palmer-and-pratt-and-corporations-donating-to-political-parties/103416510