Kerren/John H,

                       Just a thought, if that's the bycatch figures from targetting tuna etc what portion of a boats total catch per set would the ( let's say intended ) target species make up ??

Maybe if a portion or ratio control was applied then they would have to stop fishing once a certain limit of "buycatch" was reached. That's not a spelling mistake.

 As you said,  bycatch my arse.

Cheers

AC

John H...

Apparenetly there is heaps of longline gear on the "Garden Pacth" at the present......which coincides with a recreational boat getting 3 swords there other night....Ultimate Lady also got 3 up at the Kings on their last trip...so it seems they have come on the bite!

Reidfish

You raise important points about where the SW pacific fits into the bigger picture. NZ Big Game Fishing Council has already engaged the Minister on some of these points and some of the poor advice he was receiving.  I quote from a letter to the Minister dated 7^th of August 2000:

�The NZ Big Game Fishing Council is disturbed that you have been misinformed about the views expressed at the March stakeholder meeting on the swordfish fishery.  In your letter you say �I am informed that at the March meeting �� it was recognised that the New Zealand swordfish fishery is part of the overall Pacific wide swordfish stock and that New Zealand�s commercial catch of swordfish is around 5% of the overall Pacific catch.� You again repeated this view to me at the NZRFC conference.

�The Council recognises that NZ catches about 5% of the total Pacific catch of 20,000 tonnes but we strongly contested Talbot Murray�s view that there was only one swordfish stock across Pacific Ocean.  There are certainly other views expressed in the literature and recorded in the minutes of the March 2000 meeting.  Chris O�Brien the senior MFish representative at the meeting stated �from a research standpoint it is important to recognise that there is a complete lack of knowledge about swordfish biology and the fishery eg. the relationship with the stock outside the NZ EEZ which is very important.� (page 5 Swordfish Meeting Minutes). 

�We do not believe that a lack of evidence of stock separation in the Pacific constitutes proof that there is only one stock.  What we find most disturbing about the one stock view is the implication that trying to manage the swordfish fishery in New Zealand is a waste of time because we are catching a small proportion of a highly mobile stock. 

�The Standing Committee on Tuna and Billfish is undoubtedly the leading scientific organisation in the western and central Pacific on matters such as swordfish stock assessment.  In a summary statement from their recent meeting in Noumea they state that �new research on swordfish stock structure postulates three stocks in the Pacific (NW, SE and SW) and will necessitate a sub-regional management approach.�  We endorse this view.

�We raised a number of our concerns in a letter to the previous Minister of Fisheries.  Particularly, that the gradual development of the swordfish fishery, that we had hoped to secure through the Billfish Memorandum of Understanding with commercial fishers, had gone out the window.  The catch had blown out from 100 tonnes in 1994-95 to 1000 tonnes in 1998-99 (1000%).  This rate of increase is twice the increase in the claimed target species, bigeye tuna, or the increase in fishing effort in the northern region -1.6 million hooks set 1994-95 to 3.0 million hooks set in 1998-99 (200%) (M. Francis 2000)

�There is not adequate knowledge of swordfish biology and stock status to allow the uncontrolled expansion of this fishery.  We believe that the Ministry should be more pro-active in managing the fishery for swordfish, southern bluefin and bigeye tuna. We know that concern in Australia has lead to several swordfish research projects being developed.

�It was heartening, I must say, to see decisive action taken to control the development of Pilchard fishery until there is sound research on the impact and sustainability of expansion.  In that fishery there were six permit holders and four or five vessels fishing.  We ask that you consider limiting the expansion of the tuna/swordfish fishery, which currently has 446 permits and 100 vessels operating, until this fishery is proven.�

So we have been at this issue for some time now. It seems that at the moment prices are low and fishing is hard so the longline fleet is shrinking not because of management controls but because of economics.

On the other question, Not sure that trucking would be any benefit. It is the Aussie market that take most of the toothpicks (Baby swordfish) landed in NZ anyway.  They never used to land them because there was no market for them when exporting to the USA.  Now they can sell the lot.

John H

visit here, to how they are packed and sent to market, this is Aust doing it's thing........

http://www.globsea.com/swordfish.htm

Cheers Lethal

obald

This story was also in the New York Times. Here is an extract. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/14/science/life/14CND-FISH.html?ex=1053966385&ei=1&en=1bcb121fd23fd8a6

Commercial Fishing Is Cited in Decline of Oceans' Big Fish

May 14, 2003
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
NEW YORK TIMES
In just 50 years, the global spread of industrial-scale
commercial fishing has cut by 90 percent the oceans'
population of predatory fishes, from majestic giants like
blue marlin to staples like cod, a new study has found.
Oceanographers not connected with the study say it provides
the best evidence yet that recent fish harvests have been
sustained at high levels only because fleets have sought
and heavily exploited ever more distant fish populations.
Other studies had shown such trends for individual species
and some coastal fisheries, but experts said this was the
first systematic study to measure the impact throughout the
oceans. The study is to appear on Thursday in the journal
Nature and is online at www.nature.com.

Should be worth a look.

Reidfish.  It will take years for the standing committee on tuna and billfish or the Commisionfor the conservation and management of highly migratory fish stocks in the western and central Pacific Ocean to do a stock assessment or take any action.  Because of public concern the NZbig Game Fishing Council representation at meetings the Ministry of Fisheries has commisioned research into the factors that effect the catch rate of swordfish, including the use of lightsicks.  Also they have a project that should go out to tender soon to conduct a stock assessment and estimate MSY for swordfish in the SW Pacific.  This may speed things up a little.

John H