1 JULY 2010

NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE, No. 76

2121

7. Restrictions on use of bottom longlines—No commercial fisher may set bottom longlines to take fish, aquatic life, or seaweed between the hours of 0.5 hours before nautical dawn and 0.5 hours after nautical dusk, unless line weighting is employed in accordance with clause 8 of this circular.

8. Line weighting—(1) For the purposes of clause 7, lines must be:

   (a) an integrated weighted line with a lead core of at least 50g/m; or

   (b) when externally weighted gear is used and the hook-bearing line is 3.5 millimetres or greater in diameter, every 60 metres of hook-bearing line must have at least 4 kilograms of metal weight or 5 kilograms of non-metal weight attached; or

   (c) when externally weighted gear is used and the hook-bearing line is less than 3.5 millimetres in diameter, every 60 metres of hook-bearing line must have at least 0.7 kilogram of weight attached.

   (2) Regardless of the type of line weighting used under clause 8(1):

   (a) any rope or line used to attach weights to the hook-bearing line must not be longer than 20 metres; and

   (b) no more than 3 floats (up to 150 millimetres in diameter) may be attached to the hook-bearing line for every 60 metres of line, unless an additional 1 kilogram weight is added to the line per additional float; and

   (c) floats greater than 150 millimetres in diameter are not permitted to be attached to the hook bearing line; and

   (d) when a separate rope or line is not used to attach a marker buoy to the hook-bearing line, and a marker buoy is attached directly, no hooks may be attached to the line within 30 metres on either side of the marker buoy.

9. Restriction of offal or fish discharge while setting and hauling bottom longlines—(1) No person may discharge offal or fish during setting of bottom longlines.

   (2) Offal or fish may be discharged during the hauling of bottom longlines provided it is discharged from the side of the vessel that is opposite to the side on which the hauling station is located.

   (3) Subclause (1) does not apply to:

   (a) fish that are legally undersize; or

   (b) fish that are listed on the Sixth Schedule of the Fisheries Act 1996 and that are likely to survive.

   (4) Despite subclause (2), Patagonian toothfish may be discharged during the hauling of bottom longlines on the same side of the vessel on which the hauling station is located.

10. The Schedule—(1) The Schedule provides further guidelines on the design and deployment of streamer lines as seabird scaring devices.

    (2) The Schedule is not part of the specifications.

    (3) If there is any inconsistency between the guidelines in the Schedule and the specifications, the specifications prevail.

Seabird Scaring Device (Streamer line)

Diagram not to scale
Not all specifications illustrated

• The streamer line needs to protect baited hooks from seabirds. This means that the streamer line should be positioned in such a way that streamers are flapping in an unpredictable fashion, above the area in which the baited hooks enter the sea, so that seabirds are deterred from attempting to take bait from the hooks. In order to achieve this even during cross-winds, it is expected fishers will have to make adjustments to the configuration of the streamer line depending on the conditions.

  (i) It is generally recognised as best practice to maximise the aerial extent of the streamer line, because this maximises the area in which the baited hooks are protected from seabirds. Best practice would be to achieve an aerial extent of 100 metres or more. In order to maximise aerial extent, it is necessary to create tension in the streamer line. This can be achieved by:

  - towing an object on the terminal end of the streamer line;
  
  - or towing extra length of streamer line; or
  
  - increasing the diameter of the in-water section of the streamer line.