November 13, 2017 12:00pm by David Farrar

Another win for the fishing industry over marine conservation

Conservationists trying to protect endangered species of dolphins aren’t happy with a government decision to pause a rollout of electronic monitoring on many commercial fishing vessels.

On Friday Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash said he had instructed Ministry for Primary Industries officials to look at options for slowing down the implementation of the Integrated Electronic Monitoring and Reporting System on commercial fishing vessels. …

On Sunday Christine Rose, chairwoman of Maui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders NZ, said the decision was a huge setback for conservation.

“Electronic observer coverage is essential to properly manage by-catch. Evidence from electronic monitoring trials showed horrific, unreported fish dumping and the death of Hector’s dolphins,” she said.

Research showed up to three times as many fish and non-target species are caught and dumped than are landed and recorded in catch records, she said.

The Government must get on top of the issues of by-catch, waste, under-reporting and non-compliance.

“The National Government was no friend of conservation, but the new Labour Government has shown itself in this move, to be no friend of science, or conservation either”, Mrs Rose said.

Does the Green Party have anything to say on this? Or are they too busy cashing in their new Ministerial salaries.

So far it is 2-0 for the fishing industry over marine conservation.