UPDATE ON ITEMS OF INTEREST TO WG-IMAF

This paper documents recent and ongoing developments in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone that are relevant to the work of WG-IMAF. These developments include refinement of the requirement of fishing practices to reduce seabird bycatch by surface longline vessels and the introduction of regulations to reduce seabird bycatch by bottom longline vessels. The bycatch of seabirds by fisheries within New Zealand’s EEZ in recent years that either breed or forage within the CCAMLR convention area (Convention seabirds) is detailed. This paper includes a tabulation of observed captures by species and bycatch estimations by fishery for all seabirds. This paper also contains description of the recent and ongoing seabird mitigation trials that are underway in New Zealand. These include trawl offal management techniques, such as batching and mincing, and the blue dyed bait trial for surface longline fishing. We also discuss a new version of the Productivity-Susceptibility Assessment technique for risk assessment and its potential for use in the CCAMLR context.