New Zealand sea lion management
Management
In 2007 the Department proposed two draft plans to guide future management of the New Zealand sea lion. Having considered all comments from stakeholders a decision has been taken to implement, with some revisions, a Species Management Plan but to not proceed further, at this point in time, with a Population Management Plan.
New Zealand Sea Lion Species Management Plan 2009-2014
The Species Management Plan provides a framework to guide the Department of Conservation in its management of the NZ sea lion over the next 5 years. Recovery of the New Zealand sea lion to non-threatened status requires an increase in the population size and distribution. The Species Management Plan outlines a range of measures through which this will be facilitated. Emphasis in placed on the management of adverse human impacts, enforcement and compliance activities, community relations and will be supported through various research projects.
Draft New Zealand Sea Lion Population Management Plan
The draft Population Management Plan outlined options for managing the extent of incidental mortality of New Zealand sea lions from fishing through establishing a maximum allowable level of fishing-related mortality (MALFiRM) for all New Zealand fisheries waters (out to 200 nautical miles offshore) and possibly for a specific area of the Auckland Islands Squid Fishery (SQU6T).
A draft of the Population Management Plan was proposed in 2007 and consultations invited.
Since the development of the draft significant new information has become available. This included the availability of a revised management model which made use of more recent data sets. The Department seeks to implement all management programs on the basis of the best available information. As the draft Population Management Plan did not account of the new information, the Director-General of Conservation decided it was not prudent to proceed further.
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