The New Zealand Best Fish Guide - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 369

seals and seabirds (albatross and petrels) on other non-target species including ling
( Genypterus blacodes ), hake ( Merluccius australis ) and silver warehou ( Seriolella
punctata ), and on benthic invertebrates in areas of bottom trawling. Forest and Bird
was also concerned at the failure of the fishing industry to implement corrective
measures in the fishery despite such measures being requested since 2001 by the
MSC certifier, SGS.
An MSC-appointed panel considered the appeal by Forest and Bird against the
certification in 2002. The panel stated: 'As is apparent from its conclusions and
recommendations which follow, the panel has identified several aspects of the
SGS assessment concerning Principle 2 which would have justified a refusal of
certification as at the date of the assessment.' (MSC Independent Panel 2002).
Despite this the panel confirmed the certificate conditional on a corrective action
plan and additional requirements.
In the face of its concern at fisheries management failures and its dissatisfaction
with the MSC process, decisions and the outcome of the appeal, Forest and Bird
decided that it would issue its own assessment of the New Zealand fisheries. There
was demand by Forest and Bird members and the general public for information
on the impacts of different New Zealand commercial fisheries. Consumers wanted
to know which commercial fisheries have the least environmental impacts and
which fish to select or avoid. The Society wanted consumers, in New Zealand and
elsewhere, to have easily accessible information that was not the subject of pressure
from commercial interests or in other ways subject to pressure from those who stood
to gain from certification.
In 2006 hoki's 5-year term of certification ended. The hoki fishery was reassessed
by SGS as meeting the MSC criteria and this decision has been appealed by Forest
and Bird and the World Wide Fund for Nature (New Zealand). The decision of
the MSC Appeal Tribunal was released in September 2007. The final decision of
the Panel was to allow the decision of the certifiers to continue the certification to
stand. The Panel noted that the overall passing score was 'by the skin of its teeth'
and the 'Panel sees some validity to the objectors' position that this is not a fishery
that should be certified as sustainable'.

18.2 Description of the programme

The Best Fish Guide was launched in New Zealand in May 2004 after two years
of research and investigation (Weeber 2004, Weeber & Szabo 2004). It was based
largely on official government information. Two reports were released:

Part one which profiled each of the species assessed and ranked (Weeber &
Szabo 2004); and

Part two which set out the criteria used and provided a range of background
information on the effects of New Zealand fisheries (Weeber 2004).