An interesting article on the Herlad website today suggests that fish stocks off the coast of Kenya are being boosted - largely in part to Somali pirates preventing illegal trawlers from catching fish in the region.
Two messages in this for me -
1. Enforcement of rules is needed and it really works
2. Trawl fishing can have devastating impacts on fish stocks.
So,... what about here?
Trawl fishing is amongst the most commonly practised commercial fishing method in New Zealand - if not THE most common fishing method.
Our enforcement is poor. The highest rate of observer cover is about 40% - largely in fisheries with high bycatch of sea lions and seabirds. Our domestic tuna fleet however (which catches and fins more sharks than it catches tuna) has less than 1% observer cover.
What do you think we should do about this?