Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:630;Page:2772] 
7.  
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Fisheries 
: Is his decision to allow the squid fishery to kill 55 percent more Hooker’s sea lions the rarest sea lion in the world consistent with the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister of Fisheries) 
: 
 The answer is yes. The Government’s biodiversity strategy states as a desired outcome for marine biodiversity that “any harvesting is done in an informed controlled and ecologically sustainable manner.” In respect of the New Zealand sea lion management of by-catch from the squid fishery is informed by annual surveys of sea lion populations and of all fishing activities. It is controlled by a fishing related mortality limit set by the Minister of Fisheries and enforced by satellite vessel monitoring and by observers. Finally the impacts of the squid fishery are managed in an ecologically sustainable manner by ensuring that the sea lion by-catch is kept comfortably within what the best available science suggests is necessary to ensure that the sea lion population is maintained at a sustainable level. 
Metiria Turei 
: Will he ensure the ecological sustainability set out in the biodiversity strategy is maintained by insisting the squid fishery uses jiggers instead of trawling in the Southern Ocean given that the simple use of jigging technology will almost certainly completely avoid killing any Hooker’s sea lions and would not this be a simple and relatively cost-effective way of supporting the industry without threatening the extinction of this New Zealand endangered species? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I am advised as Minister of Fisheries that the severe ocean conditions around the Auckland Islands—which is the area we are talking about where these sea lions are a by-catch—can be both difficult and hazardous for squid jigging vessels. For this reason I am unwilling to require extended no-trawl zones around the Auckland Islands in order to encourage jigging alternatives until such methods have been further tested and proven both feasible and safe in this fishery. Although I am concerned about the mortality of sea lions of course I am also concerned about the mortality of fishermen. 
Metiria Turei 
: Does the Minister not think it is inconsistent for the Government of which he is a part to be criticising Norway and Japan for the hunting of minke whales while right here at home he allows the increased slaughter of the Hooker’s sea lion a species classified by the World Conservation Union as being much closer to extinction than the minke; and does his decision not really mean that as long as there are a few of these animals left in New Zealand the rest are allowed to die? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I think that to compare the so-called scientific basis on which the Japanese are promoting whaling when there is no effective market for whaling and there is a real threat to the whale population if they are hunted deliberately with a by-catch of sea lions the numbers of which are well within any sustainable range is a far cry and a long bow. The best scientific advice I have in front of me is that there would be a level of up to 550 sea lions caught and that that would be the limit at which we would start to concern ourselves about the sustainability of sea lions on a one-off basis. The decision I made to allow the squid fishery to continue when there is an abundance of squid and they are caught only once—use it or lose it—was made on the basis that 150 sea lions caught in one season would not come anywhere near the consideration of sustainability that scientists have advised me about.