The latest government quarterly report into protected seabirds and marine species revealed the industry was still facing issues with bycatch in the Southern region: three hector’s dolphins were caught, while an updated report released last week said there were three hoiho caught this season, along with dozens of other seabirds.
Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust general manager Anna Campbell said the results were disturbing.
"We have been calling for a set net sunset for decades, and this just really reinforces why it’s so necessary.
"Even though the population plight is continuing, this continued interaction with fisheries is really disappointing."
Last season, there were 147 yellow-eyed penguin nests with eggs.
"So when we’re talking about the number of hoiho caught in bycatch, three is significant, and particularly if they’re breeding females.
"Any number of set netting deaths is too many in our eyes, but also it has a huge effect on the growth of the population."
It was entirely possible for a species to increase its population, provided you had the right environmental settings and protection, Ms Campbell said.
She used the African penguin as an example of this change.
"In Africa, with 10,000 breeding pairs, they actually closed the fishery relating to the prey of the penguins.
"They took into consideration the penguin foraging in competition with commercial fishing, and they proved that it had a huge and major impact on malnutrition as the leading cause of the plight of the population."
A call for zero bycatch was not quite as easy as it sounded, she said.
"I think when we’re calling for zero bycatch, what we’re calling for is it calls for a set net sunset.
"It calls for regulation —it calls for a threat management plan around the species — and that’s the direction it’s heading in."
The Environmental Law Initiative has also sent a legal letter to Conservation Minister Tama Potaka and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones asking them to consider the dangerous effects the practice of set netting has on the environment and seabird life.
The letter noted a bycatch reduction plan for Hector’s Dolphins already exists, and so far had encouraged many ships to improve their surveillance — in total on-board cameras are live on 217 commercial fishing vessels in the South.
A spokesman for Mr Potaka forwarded the Otago Daily Times’ query to Mr Jones’ office.
"Minister Jones has received the Environmental Law Initiative’s letter and will respond to it in due course," a spokeswoman said.
"He won’t pre-empt that in the media."
