Marine NZ

Date Posted: 18 Jun 2009 | 1 Comments

High profile recreational fisher and television host Matt Watson has put his support behind a Greenpeace report stating that the fishing industry and seafood retailers are risking the future of New Zealand’s fisheries.TV Fishing Host Matt Watson Supports Greenpeace Report

Press Release - Greenpeace New Zealand - 15 June 2009

TV fishing personality Matt Watson talks about fishing and sustainability.
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/sos/matt-watson-video

Watson, who once worked as a commercial fisher and who now hosts The ITM Fishing Show, said the Greenpeace report highlighted the poor state of fisheries like snapper, hoki and orange roughy and the environmental damage being caused by industrial fishing.

“Our fisheries are in trouble. You only need to look at orange roughy, where three of the eight fisheries have been fished to collapse even though they’ve been managed under the quota management system since the system was established.”

He said claims by the industry that it was acting sustainably weren’t matched by statistics or what he had experienced.

“In my short life time I’ve noticed a decline in several species of fish, but it’s when you talk to fishers from my father’s generation, or my grandfather’s generation that you realise how much some stocks have declined.”

The report states 26 fisheries are classed as over-fished or in substantial decline while 51 fisheries cause habitat damage and almost all catch non-target fish.

“Fish stocks are collapsing around the world and it’s happening right here in our waters. We need to take the pressure off our fisheries now or, one day, there won’t be any.”

The Greenpeace report titled, While Stocks Last - Supermarkets and the Future of Seafood, calls on New Zealand’s two supermarket chains - Progressive Enterprises (owned by Woolworths Australia) and Foodstuffs – to adopt comprehensive sustainable seafood policies. At present neither business has any formal guidelines in place.

Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Karli Thomas, said consumers needed to pressure supermarkets to stock only truly sustainable seafood.

“The more people who demand truly sustainable seafood from their retailers the more incentive and pressure there will be on industrial fisheries to supply sustainably caught fish.”

Most of New Zealand’s seafood (around 90 per cent) is exported, so the actions of consumers in other parts of the world will also have an impact on the future of the country’s fisheries.

“Already, many retailers in Europe and North America have adopted sustainable seafood policies and have taken some New Zealand caught species like orange roughy off their shelves, sending a clear message to the New Zealand fishing industry to change its ways.”

Matt Watson has recorded a short video summarising the Greenpeace report – While Stocks Last – Supermarkets and the Future of Seafood. It can be viewed at http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/sos/matt-watson-video
ENDS

Posted in: New Zealand News •

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