I’ve been shut up in my house for weeks, crook as a dog, with the worst flu I have experienced. Spent a week trying to cough up a lung before that situation settled but we are now ten days and counting of feeling miserable. As much as I enjoy the view over the ocean and the passing parade of fishing boats at sea I do like to get outside and feel the sun on my back and the wind on my face – but I have been bedridden until today. I have just been for a short walk and can tell that in the Bay at least, winter is over.
The wattle trees are already in bloom and a few of the gardens in the cottages at the bottom of the hill have bright flurries of daffodils. Spring is very definitely in the air and in one short walk I have almost shed my past few weeks of suffering and general misery.
Since falling ill I very quickly tired of television other than for the All Black games and a quick check of the weather map each night. And my weekly dose of Country Calendar – what a great show that is. But I have been doing a great deal of reading and one story from the United States caught my eye earlier in the week. It requires some background explanation – so read on please.
Rather than cull cats which spread toxoplasmosis – the #1 confirmed killer of ‘Māui’ dolphins on the west coast of the North Island, those eco-cultists who fervently preach that dolphins would apparently never die other than from the impact of commercial fishing are still trying to subvert our nation’s economy by using the United States of America Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). This legislation blocks seafood imports caught by methods that could harm marine mammals.
The United States remains one of New Zealand’s top core destinations for primary and seafood products, sitting alongside China and Australia. New Zealand’s seafood exports to the United States are heavily defined by premium, highly targeted species.
Notwithstanding legislated dolphin sanctuaries, set-net and trawl prohibitions (the latter now having some real flow-on effect consequences in the top of the South Island and Cook Strait) the marine mammal protectionists seek to ban the import of New Zealand seafood products to the U.S. market. They have been trying to do so for several years. They argue that commercial inshore set-net and trawl fishing practices on the West Coast of the North Island are driving the critically endangered Māui dolphin (and the closely related Hector’s dolphin) to extinction through bycatch
Under the MMPA, the U.S. is legally required to ban seafood imports from any foreign nation whose marine mammal bycatch standards are not “comparable in effectiveness” to strict domestic U.S. rules.
The local branch of the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd initiated the original petitions and subsequent 2020 lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade that triggered temporary U.S. import bans on several NZ fish species (such as snapper and hoki). Because these protectionist efforts target U.S. officials and require litigation within the American legal system, the New Zealand groups operate in tandem with major international wildlife protection groups.
Our New Zealand fishing industry consistently called the ban unfair, arguing that we have some of the most stringently regulated, sustainable fisheries in the world. They noted that the critically endangered status of the Māui dolphin is tied to non-fishing factors like pollution and the disease toxoplasmosis, rather than solely commercial fishing. Industry rapidly adopted transparency measures to prove they weren’t harming dolphins. This included adhering to the government’s mandatory deployment of onboard cameras and vessel tracking systems on West Coast vessels to give U.S. regulators verifiable proof of zero dolphin interactions.
While the initial 2020 Sea Shepherd lawsuit was successfully beaten and the ban dissolved, the legal friction has not completely disappeared. Environmental legal advocacy is ongoing, with New Zealand authorities continually defending their regulatory decisions in both domestic and international courts to ensure NZ seafood remains unblocked in the United States. Whenever NOAA Fisheries (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). issues a “comparability finding” allowing New Zealand trade to continue, these groups file lawsuits to strike it down.
So to the recent news article that I read. The banner headline should really have been “Dear Eco-Cultist, You Get What You Play For” because their successful MMPA action against the Vietnamese tuna industry is backfiring big-time.
The U.S import ban has disrupted local supply chains originally constructed to sell Vietnamese yellowfin tuna for raw consumption in the U.S. To adapt, US processors of tuna products are importing less-traceable, lower-quality raw material to meet the gear-based import restrictions. The tuna now banned for U.S. import is still being caught but is shipped elsewhere. Meanwhile, Americans receive an inferior product.
Right there, is a lose/lose situation if I ever saw one. And now you know why I don’t have cats.
