The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) recently released the 'Seabird-Safe Toolkit', an interactive website for fishers wanting to adopt 'seabird-safe' fishing practices. The toolkit is designed for pelagic longline fisheries in any ocean and for vessels greater than 24 metres.
Fishers can:
- view a seabird risk zone map - find out if there are threatened seabirds where they fish
- get a seabird safety rating and plan how to improve
- learn about seabird safe practices (such as hook shielding devices, line-weighting, sliding leads, night-setting and safe-handling & release)
- learn about monitoring methods.
The toolkit was developed by DOC in partnership with the Southern Seabirds Trust. It follows ACAP's Best Practice Advice for longline tuna fisheries.
Read ACAP's recent news release about the toolkit.
How the Seabird-Safe fishing toolkit was developed
Seabird risk-zone map
© DOC NZ, Southern Seabirds Trust