With powers already that exceed most places in the world, the NZ fishing industry is not resting on its laurels. Rather it is seeking more power. The commercial fishing industry is drawing up proposals to take control of regulating many of its activities. It claims this could save billions of dollars in efficiencies. Conservationists are warning that this attempt to take control of important elements of regulation will lead to a "major brawl".

More here

TAGS: New Zealand fisheries, commercial fisheries, regulation, fisheries management, fishing industry, fisheries, sustainable

Publix is starting to reveal details about a project to rank seafood supplies on sustainability and stop buying stocks that don't meet certain standards over time. More than 300 seafood items sold at Publix stores will soon come under a new grading scale based on sustainability and other environmental standards. Publix is working behind the scenes with three environmental groups to develop standards: the Ocean Trust, Ocean Conservancy and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.

More here

TAGS: Publix, seafood, sustainability, fisheries, sustainable

One cannot but agree that a burgeoning seal population is having an
enormous impact on cod recovery. After this years 65,000 catch of seals
the situation can only get worse. Only 65,000 seals will be taken from
out of a quota of something like 350,000 seals. However if anyone thinks
there is not relatively intense fishing on the diminishing cod stocks in
3Ps and the Gulf stocks then they are mis-informed on inaccurate
information provided by people who are very involved in those fisheries.
The same applies to 3NO cod, the fastest growing cod in the North
Atlantic ( if given a chance to grow). The very small stock there is
directly fished or with high bycatch levels. The same situation applies
to American Plaice , a very important species  to the  N&L offshore 
fleet.  It was bad enough before NAFO changed the bycatch levels from 5
to 13 percent (which in practical terms is 20 percent). Now it will
never have an opportunity to recover. Furthermore, recently DFO  and N&L
Provincial fisheries gave permission to an offshore trawler company 
to export  yellowtails and AP from bycatches to China in
a round state. A substantial portion of their catch is small and too
young to reproduce.

Yesterday we made an appeal to have a Judicial Inquiry into fisheries in
N&L in order to stop the continuing overfishing in its many forms.

Gus Etchegary, Chairman , Fisheries Community Alliance, N&L

TAGS: cod, seals, COSEWIC, overfishing, Grand Banks cod, fisheries, sustainable

I have read Jeffrey Simpson's column and Jeff Hutching's comments re the COSEWIC conclusions. I really think they are missing a key point. For at least the last decade (and even before) the “drama” of cod stock decline has NOT been about fishing. There has been minimal fishing exploitation across the Atlantic on cod.  This is evident in DFO's Research Documents on stock assessments. Since the turn of the century, fishing mortality rates (Fs) on cod stocks have been below 0.1 – and in many years best estimates have been  F=0.0.