Phil Heatley

Wellington, Feb 24 NZPA - New Zealand's commercial fisheries are worth more than $4 billion and make a vital contribution to the economy, Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley says.

Fish monetary stock accounts released today by Statistics New Zealand showed fish stocks had risen from a financial value of $3.97 billion to $4.017 billion in the year to September 2009 -- an increase of 47 percent since 1996, when they were valued at $2.7 billion.

"This growth in value is directly attributable to New Zealand's effective fisheries management using the quota management system," Mr Heatley said.

Fisheries in many parts of the world were in decline because of subsidies and overfishing brought about by poor fisheries management, but the quota system here had meant commercial fisheries in NZ waters kept growing in value .

The Seafood Industry Council last year mounted an aggressive advertising campaign using Google to defend the sustainability of the NZ fisheries after the New York Times reported in September that the hoki fishery was showing "ominous signs of overfishing".

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 fishing year, the total allowable commercial catch was by 20,000 tonnes, a more than 20 percent increase over the previous year.

Mr Heatley announced today that patagonian toothfish, often sold as chilean sea bass, would become the 99th species to be managed using the quota system.

The patagonian toothfish fishery in New Zealand waters is at an early stage with less than 50 tonnes of fish caught in the past 15 years.

Living in deep water, from 300m-3500m on seamounts and continental shelves around most sub-Antarctic islands, the species has been heavily targeted by illegal "pirate fishing" in other parts of the Southern Ocean.

This year Greenpeace added the toothfish to its seafood "red list" of fish commonly sold in supermarkets that have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.

Mr Heatley said putting the patagonian toothfish in the quota management system was the best way to make sure any development of the New Zealand fishery happened in a sensible, responsible and well managed way.