Dr Stephanie Borrelle from Birdlife International says DOC modelling suggests the Antipodean albatross population will decline continually until it is 'functionally extinct' by 2050. Photo: Wild Capture Photography / Peter Langlands
The government is being urged to take more ambitious action to protect seabirds in light of Department of Conservation (DOC) modelling which shows the Antipodean albatross faces extinction by 2050.
Dr Stephanie Borrelle from Birdlife International told Morning Report the species was suffering as a result of international best practice not being universally adopted by New Zealand's surface longline fishing industry.
It is estimated surface longline fishing kills 300-500 albatross in New Zealand waters every year.
"In some of the latest government data, by-catch with serviced longlines is increasing significantly" - Dr Stephanie Borrelle of Birdlife International
Best practice measures included the simultaneous implementation of bird-scaring lines, line-weighting ("which takes the baited hooks out of the dive depths of birds") and setting lines at night, when birds were not as active, Borrelle said.
"Each of these methods have been proven to be effective, but individually they have limitations and so best practice suggests they need to be done all three at the same time ... currently it's only two in New Zealand waters."
Some fishers in Aotearoa had voluntarily implemented all three of the measures and their by-catch rates had decreased dramatically, she said.
But Borrelle is urging the new Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Rachel Brooking, to take more ambitious and urgent action to protect the nation's endangered seabirds.
"For over a decade MPI [the Ministry of Primary Industries] and DOC have been working with the industry to reduce by-catch rates through these sort of non-regulatory measures of voluntary implementation of best practice, but it's not working and in some of the latest government data, by-catch with serviced longlines is increasing significantly."
Borrelle said it was unclear whether that information had been included in advice to the minister, as it had not been publicly released prior to consultation on surface longline measures, which closed a couple of weeks ago.
She said DOC modelling suggested the Antipodean albatross population would decline continually until it was "functionally extinct" by 2050.
"There will be still be birds around but ... they enter what we call an extinction vortex and it's pretty hard to get a species back from that point."