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Summary
This project forms part of the Conservation Services Programme (CSP), which is administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC). The purpose of the project is to determine, primarily through examination of photographs, the taxon and where possible sex, age-class and provenance of marine
mammals, turtles and protected fishes observed in interactions with New Zealand commercial fisheries (including dead specimens discarded at sea and animals released alive). In this case observed means captures recorded by Ministry for Primary Industries fisheries observers.
Fisheries observers generally do not retain carcasses of marine mammals, turtles or protected fish killed incidentally in commercial fisheries. All observed protected species interactions with fisheries are documented digitally, including with digital imagery (still images and sometimes video). This project provides a check on the identifications made by fisheries observers at sea and attempts to capture as much information on the biology of the species concerned and nature of the interactions as is possible from images.
There was a total of 117 marine mammal, turtle and protected fish bycatch events reported between 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Of these events, 101 (85.6%) had either photos or videos that could be assessed to confirm taxa identification and other information. The remaining 16 (13.6%) events had no photos associated with them and were therefore not able to be assessed. There is some discussion of potential reasons for a lack of photos within the report.
There was only one misidentification by an observer, all other taxon identification by observers was confirmed as correct, where reasonable quality photos were available.
Publication information
Duffy, C. 2025. Identification of marine mammals, turtles and protected fish captured in New Zealand fisheries 2023-24. INT2023-04 final report prepared by Auckland War Memorial Museum for the Department of Conservation. 6 p.