Cameron Mark; Sage Eugenie; Brooking RachelMARK CAMERON (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Minister to go back to bycatch and the reality there and all the concerns that we all have with bycatch talking about set nets versus long lines in a coastal commercial sense—what technologies are afforded to the sector currently? And what technologies does the Minister envisage on the back of the full roll-out of the cameras—and we don't know when that will be; the proof of concept to 2025 so it's a six-year elapsed period of time. What technology is she aware of that will alleviate that reality because if you're a mid-water fisherman—i.e. thinking of yellow-eyed mullet but your target species is kahawai—how do they alleviate the bycatch in that reality when they're both in the same pressure zone in the ocean and 50 more fish in that scenario would see that fisherman caught into a prosecutorial reality if it's bycatch? So what technology exists today in the set-net arena not the long-line arena that will afford a fisherman in that space alleviation of bycatch? What technology exists today that you're aware of?Hon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Thank you Mr Chair. Can I return to the issue of fish stocks. There's been a recent realisation by scientists that the orange roughy stock assessment for parts of the Chatham Rise is not reliable. It doesn't show the actual health of the stocks. We're talking about a fish; it's like eating your grandmother eating orange roughy—they can live to be 200 years old. Because of that they've got quite a slow reproductive rate and they're also really difficult to manage. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research did an acoustic survey on the Chatham Rise and it said that the models that we have been using to predict the abundance of orange roughy in a large area east of the South Island were flawed and overly optimistic. Given that orange roughy are one of our most important deep-water species and they're also a species which scientists have said we know most about if we can't get the modelling right for a species like orange roughy then what is going to be done in terms of this year's spending programme to actually address those models to make sure that there's a bigger precautionary buffer in stock assessments and to relook at the whole system of stock assessments—because of course orange roughy have got certification under the Marine Stewardship Council. That will potentially be revoked. The other issue is that we are spending less now on marine fisheries research than we were some years ago. Why hasn't there been a significant increase in the funding for fisheries research and what are the obstacles to that?Hon RACHEL BROOKING (Minister for Oceans and Fisheries): I do not thank the member the Hon Eugenie Sage for that image of eating your grandmother but I do take her point about the seriousness of the orange roughy stock and that of course they can live to such an incredible old age. As the member will know the orange roughy is part of the sustainability round this time. Consultation on that has now closed. In terms of addressing the models and the further money for the science—there is a limited amount of funding there and that hasn't changed. Going back to Mark Cameron's question about technology for set-netting in relation to the legislation that was passed last year the main point with that is that the bycatch has to be reported.