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This draft strategy has been prepared for the Guardians of Fiordland’s Fisheries and Marine Environment for public consultation after being discussed with groups represented on the Guardians throughout Southland and Otago. The strategy recognises the unique marine environment of Fiordland. The draft focuses on four main issues for consultation: fisheries, values of special significance, risks to the marine environment and expressing kaitiakitanga.
This paper describes the principles and effects of marine reserves on marine eco-systems, comparing the use of marine-protected-areas to fully protected marine reserves. The paper focuses on the use of marine reserves in Europe, and the need for scientists to speak out in favour of them in the future.
Horoirangi Marine Reserve was established on 26th January 2006. This report provides a biological quantitative dataset for the rocky shores of the reserve and adjacent control areas based on surveys undertaken from 14th March 2006 to 17th May 2006. The report also includes recommendations for ongoing monitoring.
Anthropogenic disturbance of deep-sea benthic systems, especially by fishing, has increased markedly in the last 40 years. Deep-sea mining and extraction of fossil fuels can occur at extraordinary intensity at individual sites, but the large number of fishing vessels and their mobility probably makes commercial trawling the most pervasive of our marine activities to depths of up to about 1200 m. Knowledge of the effects of trawling on soft-sediment, benthic communities is, however, limited to shallow, coastal systems, mostly at small spatial scales. This report extends that knowledge to deeper systems at the scale of commercial fishing by assessing the effects of bottom trawling in northeastern New Zealand. It is inferred that trawling probably changes benthic community structure and reduces biodiversity over broad spatial scales on the continental slope as well as in coastal systems. Such effects would have important implications for local and regional biodiversity and for the development and management of sustainable fisheries.
1268 sighting records of marine mammals around the Northland coast are examined in relation to possible detrimental impacts from proposed aquaculture developments. An attempt is made to identify any critical habitats for marine mammals and assess whether aquaculture will modify the behaviour of the animals significantly. The Bay of Islands and Whangarei Harbour produced the most localized and detailed sightings, and both areas are judged to be critical habitats. Other parts of the Northland coast have the potential to be critical habitats, but at present such a categorization is not supported by the data. Potential threats to marine mammals from aquaculture are reviewed and suggestions for mitigation are made in some instances. A need for further research is identified, particularly to identify critical marine mammal habitats and to quantify impacts from proposed developments.
Guide for identifying different species of rays and sharks in New Zealand. Detailed pictures and descriptions.
The community composition of benthic macro-fauna was investigated within temperate Matapouri Estuary, northern New Zealand. Results from these benthic samples indicate that Matapouri Estuary has a high overall biodiversity, with distinctive faunal assemblages found within different habitats, and some seasonal variations also apparent. Several physical and biological differences between tropical/sub-tropical and New Zealand’s temperate mangrove habitats are put forth as potential reasons for the lower density and diversity of the benthic component observed herein.
Marine reserves, areas permanently closed to all fishing, are frequently proposed as a tool for managing fisheries. Fishery benefits claimed for reserves include increases in spawning stock size, animal body size, and reproductive output of exploited species. Extensive field research confirms many of these predictions. Reserves worldwide have led to increases in abundance, body size, biomass and reproductive output of exploited species. Encouraged by these results, many countries and states have embarked upon initiatives to establish networks of marine reserves. We describe experiences that prove that success of marine reserves is not contingent on habitat type, geographical location, the kind of fishery involved, or the technological sophistication of management. We now have strong evidence that with the support of local communities, marine reserves offer a highly effective management tool. They will be most effective when implemented as part of a package of limits on fishing effort, designed to protect exploited species and their habitats.
This paper describes in detail the concept of Ecosystem-Based Management in marine capture fisheries. It is designed to identify the main issues and propose policies and implementation guidance to help resolve those issues. WWF has prepared these Policy Proposals and Guidelines to encourage and inform the global debate and provide an operational interpretation of how to apply the principles of Ecosystem-Based Management to marine capture fisheries. The Paper is designed to build on existing knowledge and approaches to develop the concept into a workable approach for implementation in individual fisheries, consistent with integrating global and regional policy requirements into national arrangements for on-ground and ‘in-water’ actions.
Fisheries scientist David Conover is leading the most extensive laboratory study to date on the effects of size-selective harvesting in fish stocks. Results have been striking - in five generations of this kind of selection, the different categories of fish greatly diverged in characteristics.
