Fishing boss slams orange roughy 'science'

The Fisheries Ministry is "hiding behind science" over orange roughy catch limit cuts that will cost fishermen $3 million a year and some of them their jobs, fishing company boss Milan Barbarich says.

Antons Group, of which he is managing director, has legally challenged Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton's 38 per cent cut of commercial catch limits in New Zealand's northernmost orange roughy fishery area, ORA1.

Mr Barbarich said fishing knowledge and depth-sounder images of the stocks in the vast fishery showed there were "thousands and thousands of tonnes" of orange roughy.

The ORA1 fishery covers most of the west coast of the North Island and from Cape Reinga to Cape Runaway in the east.

Mr Barbarich said the ministry was not taking into account the fishing company's local knowledge.

"We know what we catch there, we know what we see; they just hide behind science."

He said an obvious "abundance" of orange roughy meant that not only was a cut in quota unreasonable, but an increase would still be sustainable.

In making the cut from 1470 tonnes to 941 tonnes this year, Mr Anderton admitted there was no proof of an immediate threat to the orange roughy population, but said he was concerned a lack of information could mask a disaster.

"I am alarmed by the possibility that a serious and irreversible sustainability problem may not be detected before it is too late," Mr Anderton said.

Mr Barbarich said the fishery was already managed "very sustainably" and the cuts would cost quota holders $3 million in lost revenue, which could mean having to lay off staff.

A Court of Appeal decision last week allowed Antons relief to keep fishing at current levels till a review of the cuts, but now it wants the cuts abolished for good.

An attempted cut in orange roughy quota was similarly challenged, and the ministry declined to fight it, instead leaving the quota the same. The ministry would not comment on the legal challenge till the January hearing.

- © Fairfax NZ News