Seabirds at risk from pirate fishing in Antarctic

By SIMON COLLINS, science reporter

Pirate fishing companies have killed up to 700,000 seabirds snared by accident on their fishing lines in Antarctic waters in the past six years.

The scientific committee of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) says seabird populations on the ice "are likely to become substantially reduced over the next five years if [illegal] fishing continues at the current rate".

Its latest report says pirate fishing in the southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans also has "severe consequences" for the viability of the biggest fish found there, the Patagonian toothfish.

However, a combination of extensive ice and regular policing has so far kept pirates out of the Ross Sea south of New Zealand.

A surveillance flight by a Royal NZ Air Force Orion in the Ross Sea on Friday again found no evidence of pirates, although it spotted four New Zealand and two Russian vessels fishing legally.

The legal fishery, which produced $14 million in export earnings for New Zealand last year, has recorded zero seabird deaths in the Ross Sea since it started six years ago because local fishing companies are required to use devices such as weights to make their hooks sink under the water quickly.

Almost all the seabird deaths are believed to have been in the southern Indian Ocean between Heard and McDonald Islands administered by Australia and Prince Edward Island administered by South Africa.

The official responsible for the convention in New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Grahame Morton, said illegal fishing operators found it easier to fish in the southern Indian Ocean than in the Ross Sea.

"It doesn't ice up in the same way, and it's not as far away as the Ross Sea," he said.

An Australian company, Austral Fisheries, says the main pirate fishing is now done by a single company, Pacific Andes International, based in Hong Kong and operating out of Indonesian ports with ships owned by front companies in landlocked Bolivia.

The convention estimates that pirate fishing lines have accidentally snared and killed between 74,000 and 144,000 albatrosses, between 13,000 and 24,000 giant petrels and between 203,000 and 378,000 white-chinned petrels.

"Since 1996, the overall total estimated potential seabird bycatch is 278,000 to 700,000 seabirds," it says. "A number of these seabird populations are already considered to be either vulnerable or endangered."

The convention has made it illegal to sell toothfish in any member country without a permit stating that it was caught legally from a boat with approved observers on board.

It also runs a blacklist of boats suspected of illegal fishing, which are not allowed permits in any convention--managed fishery.

However, there are two big loopholes in its net. First, only 24 countries belong to the convention. And, second, half of the total annual toothfish catch is reported to be just outside the convention zone - but in fact most was probably caught inside the area.

Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition say the only way to plug these gaps is a complete global ban on toothfish sales.

An Auckland-based official of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Dr Maj De Poorter, said that the current system was "a complete failure".

"Toothfish is such a valuable fish that it's worth their while even if they lose a ship here and there," she said.

"It's a goldrush. Everyone and their dog is in it."

Toothfish is traded under various names including Antarctic cod, Chilean sea bass (US) and mero (Japan). Dr De Poorter said it sold for around US$6000 ($10,600) a tonne.

Antarctic cod is also a name for Mawson's cod, a variety of toothfish found below 65 degrees South, which is caught only in the Ross Sea where there is enough ice-free water south of that latitude in summer. The Mawson's cod fishery doubled from 626 tonnes in 2000-01 to 1321 tonnes in 2001-02.

This summer the allowable catch has been raised again to 3500 tonnes and the number of New Zealand boats fishing in the Ross Sea has trebled from two to six.

Two are owned by Sealord (Nelson) and one each by J and S Fishing (Nelson), Cook Strait Seafoods (Wellington), Vela Fishing (Lyttelton) and Sanfords (Timaru).

The industry says it has invested more than $40 million in developing the fishery, including buying ice-strengthened vessels.

It estimates that it has created more than 100 jobs and has the potential to double export earnings to $30 million.

Cold law

* The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 provided that Antarctica should be used for peaceful purposes only and that all scientific observations from the region should be made freely available to all.

* In 1991 the treaty was extended to ban all mining in Antarctica.

* The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), signed in 1980, limits fishing to "sustainable" levels.

* In 2001-02, the convention allowed catches of 118,705 tonnes of microscopic krill, 11,455 tonnes of Patagonian toothfish, 3506 tonnes of icefish, 1362 tonnes of Mawson's cod and 440 minke whales.

* In addition, illegal "pirate" fishing companies are believed to have taken 10,898 tonnes of Patagonian toothfish, and a further 25,054 tonnes of toothfish were notified as being caught just outside the convention area.

* The convention's scientific committee says illegal fishing "would increase the potential for catastrophic and precipitous declines in stock biomass" and threaten seabird populations.