Fisheries
Minister Shane Jones has come face-to-face with the Grim
Reaper outside an environment conference in
Auckland.
The Environmental Defence Society’s (EDS)
conference ‘Beyond the election: A new mandate for our
environment’ at the Grand Millenium Hotel held its second
and final day on Thursday.
Jones was one of the small
political party representatives invited to share their
environment and conservation policies during a panel on
Thursday morning.
Outside the venue, Māui and
Hector’s Dolphin Defenders spokesperson, Christine Rose,
along with a person dressed in a Grim Reaper costume, asked
Jones about Hector’s Dolphin deaths at the hands of the
fishing industry.
“It’s a national shame. Under your
watch 25 Hector’s Dolphins [in the past two years] have been
killed by the fishing industry,” Rose said.
Jones
responded: “There are thousands of Hector’s dolphins, and of
course Māui’s dolphin don’t exist.
“They have not
been killed by the fishing industry. Look, it’s like these
killer whales. They could very well have been dead by the
time they go in the net,” he added.
Another panel
earlier in the day featured companies engaged in bottom
trawling. The panel was billed to focus on “how smart
engineering and innovative technologies can address the
environmental impacts of bottom trawling”.
Rose told
RNZ they were not protesting the event or the EDS but aiming
to raise awareness about bottom trawling harming dolphins
and call out “green washing”.
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“Bottom trawling killed
more Hector’s dolphins than any other known cause, and
especially in the last two years while Shane Jones has been
minister. They’ve all been reported by the fishers
themselves,” Rose said.
“We heard Shane Jones say,
there are thousands of Hector’s dolphins. But even his
ministry acknowledges that these are small populations that
cannot withstand, in some populations, even a single death
in a year.”
When approached for comment on Rose’s
claims about Hector’s dolphins, the minister’s office
referred RNZ to the Ministry for Primary
Industries.
In a statement, Director of Fisheries
Management, Emma Taylor, said the claim was not
correct.
She said each population has a
Fishing-Related Mortality Limit (FRML) — essentially a
number of dolphins allowed to be killed by the fishing
industry.
“All of these populations have a FRML higher
than one, with the lowest being the South Coast South Island
subpopulation with a FRML of three biennially, and the Otago
local population with a FRML of two annually.
“To
date, no FRML has been met or
exceeded.”
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