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Commercial fishing boat - Source: ONE News -
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New Zealand and Australia will raise with European officials concerns about two Spanish boats fishing with gillnets in the Tasman Sea.
The governments are concerned the two vessels are using the nets, which have been banned in the North East Atlantic in waters deeper than 200 metres, the ABC reported.
They are reported to have been sighted setting deepwater gillnets up to 2km underwater in seas off Lord Howe Island and elsewhere in the Tasman.
The gillnets target fish species that live on the bottom of the ocean such as the beleaguered deepwater dogfish, but if the fishing net gets lost, it acts like a "ghost net" and continues to catch fish as it bobs about in the ocean.
Deepwater migratory sharks and other fish species are likely to be caught in the nets, including harrison's dogfish, which is considered to be critically endangered.
Gillnet fleets usually target sharks for their meat and for liver oil which is used around the world in cosmetics.
A spokesman for New Zealand's Fisheries Minister, Phil Heatley, told the ABC: "There are mechanics to deal with these issues and we will work through official channels. The key issue here is the proper management of the high seas."
Australian Fisheries Minister Tony Burke said that officials will raise with European representatives the issue of the Spanish gillnetters at a crucial meeting of the fledgling South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) in Auckland next week.
The SPRFMO hopes to establish a legally-binding body that would have control over the high seas areas of the South Pacific ocean from the most eastern part of the South Indian Ocean through the Pacific towards the Exclusive Economic Zones of South America.
Traffic, a conservation organisation concerned about the lack of constraint in issuing licences on the high seas for use of gillnets has already called for action from Europe.
"The European Union should take responsibility for these Spanish vessels and ensure they are only allowed to fish in areas with a gear type if they can demonstrate sustainable fishing," said its global marine programme leader Glenn Sant.
"These fishing activities will be directly impacting on straddling stocks from within the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Australia and New Zealand," he said.
Traffic has also written to the SPRFMO to express alarm that deepwater gillnetting is being allowed in the region.
The SPRFMO meeting will pull together delegates from 20 nations to try to set up a South Pacific regional fisheries body.
Before the fledgling committee is a claim by Spain that gillnetting does not present any serious impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," said Sant.
"The available scientific evidence points towards deepwater gillnets being extremely damaging to certain species."
In 2006 the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) said unregulated use of gillnets in deep water is potentially damaging to deep-water stocks due to long-term impact of lost or abandoned gear.
The SPRFMO should ban the use of deep water set gillnets unless the fishers can demonstrate sustainability around their use and prevent the loss of gear and resultant ghost fishing, he said.
