The New Zealand Best Fish Guide - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 370

Both reports were revised and updated at the end of 2005 (Weeber 2005, Weeber &
Szabo 2005). It is the intention of Forest and Bird to continue to update the guide
on a regular basis.
A simple consumer wallet card guide (Plate 18.1) was produced which listed,
classified and ordered each species. Species were placed in one of three broad cat-
egories: rankings of green (best choice), amber (caution) and red (avoid). Within
each category, the fisheries included were ranked in order of best to worst. All
of the reports and information were also put on the Forest and Bird website
(http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/bestfishguide/index.asp). The wallet card gives
simply the conclusions of the analysis but any interested party has access to the
methodology and to the facts behind the assessments. The wallet card carries the
Forest and Bird website address to enable interested consumers to delve deeper.
The Best Fish Guide assessed 62 different fish species (68 in 2005) commercially
caught in New Zealand. Most, but not all, of the species are managed by the fisheries
QMS. In both years, all the fish species assessed scored an amber or red ranking.
No species earned the green category. Five of the six species added in 2006 were
highly migratory species caught by New Zealand fishers.
As the focus was on general consumers, it was decided early on that the pro-
gramme would only cover New Zealand commercial wild-caught fish. The criteria
assess fisheries based on major methods, impacts and management. The Best Fish
Guide does not assess marine farming products, most freshwater species (eels are
assessed), or non-commercial or customary Maorifisheries. Maori are the indige-
nous people of New Zealand and a major settlement of their commercial treaty
interests in fisheries occurred in 1992. This settlement separated the customary
(non-commercial) element of fishing from their commercial fishing interests. The
guide also does not assess fish or seafood imported from other countries, such as
tinned and frozen fish, and does not assess regional variations in fisheries.

18.3 Information sources, procedures and methodologies

Forest and Bird chose the criteria for the Best Fish Guide after reviewing other
marine certification systems and guides described in the literature, such as those
applied by Bathgate (1999) and Clarke (2002). In general, Bathgate's criteria were
amended to New Zealand conditions and augmented with two other criteria. The
choice of criteria went through two rounds of expert peer review and further revi-
sions were made in 2005 after additional feedback.
The final criteria assessed commercial species based on six issues:
status and sustainability of fish species catches;
impacts of fishing methods used (including level of bycatch and impact on
habitat);
biology and the risk of overfishing;