KEY POINTS:
New rules will limit high seas bottom trawling by New Zealand vessels.
Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said yesterday that negotiations on fisheries management for the high seas of the Southern Pacific had led to agreement on stringent rules to control bottom trawling, he said.
The third round of talks to establish a South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation was held last week in Renaca, Chile.
The meeting had agreed to an interim set of measures to apply while the new organisation was being established, Mr Anderton said.
These would come into play on September 30 and would give effect to calls from the United Nations General Assembly for controls on high seas bottom trawling.
Getting such controls agreed and implemented by the end of the year was a top priority for New Zealand.
"It will be a challenge for New Zealand fishing vessels to satisfy the assessment and review requirements of the new rules," Mr Anderton said. "However, the industry has known for some time that these controls were likely and that they would have to meet them if they want to keep on bottom trawling on the high seas."
He said discussions at the meeting - attended by 21 countries and the European Community - were based on a proposal from New Zealand.
The main points of the new measures are:
* Bottom trawling must not exceed current levels and must not expand into new areas of the high seas.
* Current bottom trawling activities can continue only if the fishers can satisfy an independently peer-reviewed process that they would not cause significant adverse effects to vulnerable marine ecosystems such as seamounts, hydrothermal vents, cold water corals and sponge fields.
The next round of negotiations will be in Noumea, New Caledonia, in September.
- NZPA
