This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Fisheries Amendment Bill. It would make changes to section 9 and section 11 of the Fisheries Act 1996 (the Act) to require more attention to measures to reduce bycatch of protected species when setting the total allowable catch and when making or amending any pre-set decision rules. It does this by:

• adding a new environmental principle to section 9, to require persons exercising powers, functions, and duties under the Act to take into account the need to avoid bycatch of protected species:

• requiring the Minister, before setting or varying sustainability measures under section 11, to take into account the need to specify effective measures which fishers must implement to reduce bycatch of protected species.

These changes will help reduce the unacceptably high death toll of “protected” and often threatened species, from the antipodean albatross to the pakake/whakahao/New Zealand sea lion.