Aotearoa has taken a world-leading step with the announcement New Zealand will adopt gold standard fishing practices to keep our seabirds safe from accidental capture and will use all three mitigation techniques or hook shielding devices.

This is a massive win for our taonga seabirds, including the highly endangered Antipodean albatross, as it will virtually eliminate seabird bycatch from surface longline fishing.

The Antipodean albatross is on the fast track to extinction with DOC estimating approximately 2,300 birds dying each year, and the number one threat to them is fishing.

While many of them get into trouble in international waters, eliminating deaths here and taking a leadership position is vital if we are to save this special species.”

Sally Paterson, Chief Executive of Live Ocean Foundation says, “Reaching this milestone has been a collective effort by many, and finally decades of work by researchers and DOC has been listened to. Dr Kath Walker and Dr Graeme Elliott’s dedication to the 30-year data set has been fundamental in this decision.

A big nod to our founders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke for shining a light on this issue on the world stage – at last, we’re beginning to see our seabirds get the same protections as our land birds.”

These ocean voyagers are global wanderers, they span the Pacific and protecting them at home is critical.

After this important decision the next step is to take this commitment to the world and ask the world’s fishing fleets to join ours in saving these incredible species.

Learn more about the race to save the Antipodean albatross here.