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GREENPEACE LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO SAVE ENDANGERED SOUTHERN BLUEFIN TUNA
Lyttleton Harbour, Christchurch - 25 March 1997
Greenpeace is to launch an international campaign calling for the immediate suspension of the Southern bluefin tuna fishery tomorrow, Wednesday 26th March.
The campaign will be launched at a public meeting on board the MV Arctic Sunrise at the Port of Lyttleton tomorrow night at 7.30pm.
The Southern bluefin tuna is a critically endangered species and a special part of the marine ecosystem. The Southern bluefin tuna fishery kills thousands of albatrosses and petrels each year, inadvertently hooking and drowning them on longlines.
Industrial fishing operations in the southern oceans are setting thousands of kilometres of lines and millions of hooks, 24 hours a day. Southern bluefin tuna has been reduced to less than 5% of its original population size in just three decades. The situation is so severe that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recently listed the
Southern bluefin tuna as 'critically endangered' on its Red List of species at risk.
The Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise will set sail from Lyttleton later this week for the southern oceans to document this destructive fishery first-hand.
"The magnificent Southern bluefin tuna is clearly on the verge of collapse, yet the political will does not exist to suspend the fishery. The New Zealand government continues to allow overfishing for Southern bluefin tuna, just for dollars," said Greenpeace Ocean Ecology campaigner, Cristina Mormorunni.
"It is imperative that the Southern bluefin fishery is suspended immediately. It is outrageous that the Government allows a fishery for an endangered species to continue. Greenpeace is heading out to sea to document the carnage in this unsustainable fishery," Mormorunni added.
Conservative estimates suggest that in the Japanese southern oceans longline fishery alone, a minimum of 44,000 albatrosses are killed each year. New Zealand is home to more species of albatross than anywhere else in the world. The New Zealand black-browed albatross, the Auckland Islands wandering albatross, the grey petrel and the grey-headed albatross are particularly at risk.
Greenpeace has sent a letter to the Minister of Fisheries asking him to suspend the Southern bluefin tuna fishery immediately.
WHAT: 'EMPTY SEAS, EMPTY FUTURE' PUBLIC MEETING
WHEN: WEDNESDAY 26TH MARCH AT 7.30PM
WHERE: ON BOARD ARCTIC SUNRISE, BERTH 2, LYTTLETON HARBOUR
SPEAKERS: Cristina Mormorunni and Denise Boyd, Ocean Ecology campaigners for Greenpeace New Zealand and Greenpeace Australia
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Cristina Mormorunni or Denise Boyd on + 64 (0)21 623 286
Glyn Walters on + 64 (0)9 630 6317 or 025 931 363.