Marine Biodiversity of Aotearoa New Zealand

Cold Water Coral By-Catch from Bottom Trawling off New Zealand

The Census of Marine Life's results on Marine Biodiversity in New Zealand are published in the Public Library of Science's One Journal of 2 August 2010 here.

The Census recorded some 17,135 living species within New Zealand's 200 nautical-mile boundary of the Exclusive Economic Zone or EEZ. This diversity includes 4,315 known undescribed species in scientific collections. Total marine diversity in the EEZ is expected to equal that in the ERMS or European Register of Marine Species region despite  the European region being 5.5 times larger than New Zealand's EEZ, indicating New Zealand's marine diversity is much greater than that in the European region.

The threats to New Zealand's marine biodiversity are several, including fishing, mining, chemical pollution, coastal nutrient and sediment input, habitat loss, aquaculture, invasive species, harmful algal blooms, and climate change.

 Protected areas within New Zealand's EEZ

"Currently, there are more than 30 marine protected areas established in New Zealand waters. All are “no take” areas, administered by the Department of Conservation....They range in size from about 250 ha (within a harbor) to 745,000 ha (7,450 km²) (at the Kermadec Islands). Collectively, they protect 7.6% of New Zealand's territorial sea; however, 99% of this area is in two marine reserves around isolated offshore island groups (Auckland and Kermadec), and the sum of the areas of the remaining reserves in the mainland territorial sea is less than the area of the smallest terrestrial national park. Of New Zealand's total marine environment (EEZ), just 0.3% is protected in marine reserves. Currently the highest level of protection outside the territorial sea is through fisheries closures of trawling on 19 seamounts, initiated in 2001. Additionally, in 2007, the New Zealand government established 17 Benthic Protection Areas in deep water; these protect about 30% of the seabed in the EEZ from deep-sea bottom trawling and dredging activity. There are three marine parks, each having different regulations and generally affording a lower level of protection than marine reserves proper, for example, mainly protecting reef fish."

Much clearly remains to be done to manage the marine environment in a sustainable manner.

For our Australian friends and readers of this blog, you will find a similar Marine Biodiversity of Australia article compiled as part of the Census of Marine Life here.

Census of Marine Life

Orange roughy, at risk in New Zealand waters

Over the past ten years, more than 2,700 scientists from 82 nations involving 538 field expeditions backed by US$650 million of funding have been conducting a census of global marine life. Now the results are becoming available in final form.

In October the Census of Marine Life will publish more detailed, final results but advance estimates have recently become available. The research has so far counted over 230,000 individual species.

The Guardian Weekly sums up the Census results nicely (full article here):  

"The results show that around a fifth of the world's marine species are crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters, krill and barnacles. Add in molluscs (squid and octopus) and fish (including sharks) and that accounts for up to half of the number of species in the world's seas. The charismatic species often used in conservation campaigning – whales, sea lions, turtles and sea birds – account for less than 2% of the species in the world's oceans. 

The surveys have also highlighted major areas of concern for conservationists. "In every region, they've got the same story of a major collapse of what were usually very abundant fish stocks or crabs or crustaceans that are now only 5-10% of what they used to be," said Mark Costello of the Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland in New Zealand. "These are largely due to over-harvesting and poor management of those fisheries. That's probably the biggest and most consistent threat to marine biodiversity around the world."

The main threats to date include overfishing, degraded habitats, pollution and the arrival of invasive species. But more problems are around the corner: rising water temperatures and acidification thanks to climate change and the growth in areas of the ocean that are low in oxygen and, therefore, unable to support life."

The Guardian UK also has some very useful graphics providing more detailed information on various ecosystems and regions of the world here and a brief item on just how the census takers count marine species and how they estimate species yet to be discovered here.

 The advance results of the Census were published in the 2 August issue of the Public Library of Sciences ONE Journal available here.

Both New Zealand and Australia have huge marine resources surrounding their coastlines and have equally huge tasks ahead of them in managing those resources in more sustainable ways. Better management requires better knowledge and the Census of Marine Life is an important improvement in that knowledge base.

 Hoki, at risk in New Zealand waters

New Zealand Sinks Teeth into Sub Antarctic Toothfish Pirates

The High Court in New Zealand has rejected attempts by a Namibian fishing company to gag the New Zealand government. The court ruled that the Government acted within domestic and international law in inspecting Namibian-based Omunkete Fishing (Pty) Limited’s Paloma V fishing vessel when it sought to unload nearly 100 tonnes of Patagonian toothfish in Auckland in May 2008.

As soon as the High Court released its decision, the government filed its report with the Commission of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The report details evidence obtained in the search of illegal fishing and collaboration with other known pirate vessels in sub Antarctic waters. New Zealand also recommended that the Paloma V be blacklisted from entry to the ports of the 34 CCAMLR signatory countries.

The Patagonian toothfish is known as the "white gold" of the Southern Ocean, commanding high prices in the luxury end of the seafood market. It is sold under the trade name “Chilean sea bass” in the United States and is a top-end sashimi item in Japan. The illegal catch is estimated to be up to five times the legal catch.

The toothfish is highly vulnerable to overfishing because its stock is not very resilient. While it lives up to 50 years, it takes 6-9 years to become sexually mature. Combined with relatively low fecundity, the minimum population doubling time is as long as 4.5 to 14 years.

It seems a corporate shell game (excuse the pun) is at work in the illegal fishing of toothfish. In documents submitted to the High Court, NZ Fisheries alleged the computer evidence from the Paloma V showed that Omunkete is controlled by a Spanish company, Vidal Armadores, and a Uruguayan company, Mabenal SA. Omunkete appears to be a vehicle for re-flagging the Paloma V from Uruguay to Namibia in order to obtain a licence to fish in CCAMLR fisheries. Indeed, a CCAMLR licence was issued.

NZ Fisheries further alleged that Mabenal SA has had continuous ownership of the vessel since it was built in 2004. Moreover, Vidal Armadores and Mabenal SA have strong links to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) in the southern ocean. Documents found onboard the Paloma V show these two companies have interests in the operation of at least 5 fishing vessels currently entered on CCAMLR’s IUU list of vessels. Inspection of the Paloma V’s computer records showed that it had contact with known illegal vessels engaged in pirating toothfish stocks and had engaged in resupplying them at sea. Thus, it appears the Paloma V is operating as part of a larger fleet of vessels flying different flags engaged in IUU fishing activities. It is a small step to conclude that corporate interests are seeking to circumvent international treaties by re-flagging to countries like Namibia where monitoring and enforcement capabilities are weak.

This evidence undermines Omunkete Fishing's James van Zyl’s claims in Namibia that the whole affair was related "to the vessel's history" when it was an Uruguay-flagged vessel. "The allegations have nothing to do with the vessel now. They are all historical. We definitely have not been involved in any illegal fishing practices." (The Namibian, July 9, 2008).

Van Zyl suggested that blacklisting of the Paloma V would make Omunkete’s operations uneconomic. He said it takes about 25 days to get to the Antarctic Ocean, with the vessel using approximately 5 000 litres of fuel a day. "There will be no point if we travel all the way there, and not be able to offload at the nearest port, but would have to come all the way back - another 25 days at 5 000 litres fuel of per day. We'll go bankrupt," Van Zyl said.

The Paloma V left New Zealand in late May and docked in Walvis Bay, Namibia on July 3, where it offloaded the 100 tonnes of frozen toothfish for export to the United States.

Sources:

The High Court decision may be found at (enter Omunkete as the search term)

NZ Ministry of Justice – judicial decisions online

Press release, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, July 8, 2008

“Namibian trawler netted in Pacific for illegal fishing,” The Namibian, July 9, 2008.