Yellow-eyed penguins at risk due
to set net fishery
FOREST & BIRD
Almost half the breeding
population of yellow-eyed penguins on Codfish Island, west of Stewart
Island, have disappeared at sea, most likely because of commercial set
nets, Forest and Bird says.
Forest & Bird chief executive
Kevin Hague said the group was calling on the Government to gather those who
work to protect the penguins, but also the fishing industry to
agree an immediate set of actions to eliminate the risks from set netting
in the penguins' feeding area.
"Unlike previous years where
disease and high temperatures caused deaths on land, this year birds have
disappeared at sea. There is an active set net fishery within the penguins'
Whenua Hou foraging ground, and the indications are that nearly half the Whenua
Hou hoiho population has been drowned in one or more of these nets.
"We are asking DOC and MPI
what they intend to do to save our hoiho from extinction, because at current
rates of decline we are on track to lose hoiho completely from mainland New
Zealand. We have also written to the Minister of Conservation, expressing our
concern."
However, Ministry for Primary Industries
(MPI) says it is stepping up monitoring of the set net fisheries.
Almost every penguin killed
in the set net fishery was killed on a boat that had an official observer on
board, Hague said.
The first step was to get more
observers onto set net vessels and prioritise putting cameras on set netting
boats, he said.
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