Sealion petition gets 4000 signatures in month

A petition urging the Government to reduce the annual sealion kill quota in the southern squid fishery has collected more than 4000 signatures in its first month.

The online Save Our Sealions petition wants the number of sealions allowed to drown in fishing nets to be close to zero next year.

Last year Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton increased the 2006 quota by 52 per cent from 97 to 150, despite the risk that raising it would further contribute to the decline of the New Zealand sealion population.

Once common around New Zealand, New Zealand sealions now only breed on a few sub-Antarctic islands and sporadically at Otago Peninsula.

There are fewer than 12,000 animals and annual pup production has reduced by 30 per cent over the last eight years.

Forest and Bird is encouraging the squid fishing industry to adopt the jigging method of fishing, which does not harm sealions and produces better quality frozen squid.

The petition can be signed online at www.forestandbird.org.nz

- NZPA