Don't Let the Fishing Industry Cover Up Gruesome Animal Deaths

  • by: Jacob K
  • recipient: NZ Ministry of Primary Industries

Soon, the only place you might be able to see the yellow-eyed penguin is on the back of a New Zealand $5 dollar bill, or online. That's because, in just 40 short years, this iconic bird could be extinct.

The population has plummeted by 75% since the 1990s. According to scientists, one of the main threats to their survival is that fishermen often catch them as bycatch — the unintentional catching of a species. Bycatch has also directly lead to the decline in population of other marine life, such as the New Zealand sea lion.

In order to combat the bycatch and illegal fish dumping, NZ introduced fishery monitoring and management online. As of October 2017, the commercial fishing industry will be required to use geospatial position reporting (GPR), e-logbooks and ships will be fitted with cameras by October of 2018.

The footage from the ships could potentially be public, allowing environmental organizations, and everyday citizens the ability to see exactly what it takes to put fish on their table, even if it means showing the gory details, like dead penguin or sea lion bycatch.

But the fishing industry doesn't want us to see the gory truth. They are trying to convince the government to ensure that video recorded onboard cannot be released to the public, even via a freedom of information request.

This cannot happen. We have the right to know how the commercial fishing industry is affecting our environment. The industry should spend its energy preventing these gruesome deaths, not covering them up.

The NZ government has taken a major step towards commercial fishery accountability, which could give some of the country's most threatened species a fighting chance.

Let's make sure New Zealand's Ministry of Primary Industries knows we support public access to the onboard videos and ask them to deny the commercial fishing industry's request to make these images private.

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