The New Zealand Best Fish Guide - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 371

effectiveness of management and research (including input and output controls,
management plans, and stock assessment information);
bycatch of protected species or threatened species (such as seabirds, marine
mammals and other species covered by schedule 5A of the Wildlife Act 1954
and threatened species ranked by IUCN or the New Zealand Department of
Conservation); and
effectiveness of the management unit (including whether more than one species
or stock are managed together).
These criteria were selected because they provide a 'whole of ecosystem' basis on
which to rank the overall ecological sustainability of each fish stock, and there is
enough information available to assess a fishery against each criterion. The last two
criteria are additions to Bathgate's approach. These were added to better reflect
the impacts of fishing on protected species such as marine mammals, seabirds and
turtles, or globally threatened species, and to better assess the risks associated with
multi-species or multi-stock management. Seabirds, turtles and marine mammals
are protected under New Zealand's Wildlife Act 1953 and the Marine Mammals
Protection Act 1978. Also protected under the Wildlife Act (Schedule 7A) are
spotted black grouper ( Epinephelus daemelii ), black coral (all species in the order
Antipatharia) and red coral (all species). The 2005 revision of the Guide added ad-
ditional criteria to the management effectiveness issue for highly migratory species
which are also managed under international conventions.
The scoring system, whilst based on the best information available, was neces-
sarily partly subjective and qualitative rather than wholly quantitative. Further, the
health and status of each fish stock vary over time, so the 'snap shot' of a single
assessment cannot fully capture trends. Future versions of the Best Fish Guide may
also report on trends.
Criteria were established that allowed stocks to be ranked on each variable. The
criteria were weighted and the weighted scores summed. Each fishery was scored
on the basis of the extent to which it meets the criteria. The scoring against each
criterion used a five-step rating from A to E (1-5).

18.3.1 Information sources

The guide used the best available information on the state of fisheries and the
impacts of fishing on the aquatic environment. The main sources of information
were publicly available reports from the Ministry of Fisheries and the Department
of Conservation (DoC) and their contractors including the NZ National Institute of
Water and Atmosphere (NIWA), and published scientific papers.

18.3.2 Precautionary management
In assessing fisheries in New Zealand, Forest and Bird applied a precautionary ap-
proach. The precautionary approach has been very widely recognised in fisheries