Protests greet plan to increase bluefin catch

Plans to catch more of an endangered fish prized by Japanese diners, while dropping limits for other countries, have outraged environmentalists who say New Zealand is swimming against the international tide.

More than 1400 people, mostly supporters of Greenpeace, have written to the Ministry of Fisheries asking it to halt plans to increase New Zealand's catch of southern bluefin tuna, stocks of which have fallen to a historic low of about 5 per cent of the original population.

Almost all southern bluefin are exported to Japan, where they are highly prized as a key ingredient in sushi. Exclusive European restaurants also sell them.

Their northern cousins, Atlantic bluefin tuna, have been the subject of a high-profile campaign by celebrities including Charlize Theron and Sting. The British Fisheries Minister called for a boycott of posh Japanese fish restaurant Nobu until the fish was scrapped from its menu.

The Ministry of Fisheries says it is time for New Zealand to reap some rewards after cutting catches to help the fishery bounce back. Recent international agreements between fishing nations have agreed to cut overall catches by 20 per cent for the next two years but raise New Zealand's yearly limit from 420 tonnes to 570 tonnes.

The ministry wants to increase the legal catch under the Fisheries Act to 532 tonnes to take advantage of the higher international allowance.

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley said New Zealand lobbied hard to lower the international catch but the local limit was a separate issue.

He said New Zealand was promised when its limit was cut from 1000 tonnes to 420 in 1994 that the limit would one day be increased.

The ministry's report on the plan notes the $6 million industry has struggled to reach even the lower 420-tonne limit in the past but Mr Heatley said it would be able to expand once other countries cut back.

Greenpeace NZ oceans campaigner Karli Thomas said southern stocks were "actually in a worse state" than the fishery in the Northern Hemisphere, where a United Nations panel recently backed a proposal to ban exports of northern bluefin tuna by putting it in the same protected category as elephant ivory.

She said New Zealand was risking its international reputation. "[Bluefin] is a critically endangered species like the kakapo and Maui's dolphin."

Greenpeace wants the southern bluefin fishery closed so the stocks can recover from overfishing.

Public submissions on the plan to increase New Zealand's catch close today on the Ministry of Fisheries' website.