KEY POINTS:
An environmental group has welcomed new restrictions on longline fishing aimed at reducing the deaths of albatrosses and other seabirds.
Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton has announced three measures designed to reduce seabird bycatch:
* A daytime ban on surface longlines targeting tuna or swordfish.
* Bird-scaring devices must be used on all surface longlines.
* All longline fishing voyages must provide five days' notice to the Fisheries Ministry observer programme.
The measures, prompted by several albatross deaths in the Kermadec swordfish fishery, were indicated before Christmas.
Ministry observers on one three-week Kermadec fishing voyage witnessed the bycatch of 51 albatrosses, seven petrels and two critically endangered leatherback turtles.
Another boat in the area caught another seven albatrosses.
Although 17 birds were taken off the hooks alive, experts say most of them would have died.
Most of the birds were antipodean albatross - a vulnerable species that breeds only in New Zealand waters.
Forest and Bird spokeswoman Kirstie Knowles said the moves were a good start.
However, many vessels involved in longlining had a poor record of compliance with rules, and observers should now be put on every boat.
Other measures were also needed to reduce shark and turtle bycatch.
Swordfish were brought into the quota management system on October 1, after many years in which they were taken in large numbers as a bycatch by tuna boats.
- NZPA
