Dear Ministry for Primary Industries,

In 2019 Orion overflights were conducted for vessel compliance to fisheries regulations. In a draft annual report on the National Plan of Action - Seabirds, it was reported that 250 surface longline vessels fishing outside the NZ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) were seen from aerial observations in 2019. In these observations, "No breaches were identified in relation to seabird mitigation measures during the reporting period”.
I would like to request the following clarifying information that was not included in summary results relating to these overflights:
1) how many of the vessels were fishing south of 30°,
2) how many were day setting, and of these day setting vessels,
a) whether imagery of the stern was collected for day setting vessels (necessary to determine if they were deploying a legally required tori line) and,
b) how many had tori lines that were visible in imagery?

Thank you very much for your time in assisting me with this information.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Stephanie Borrelle