Dear Ministry for Primary Industries,

I have two requests regarding the fisheries observer programme:

Question 1:
• I request a table showing the annual level of fishery observer coverage on deep-sea trawl boats for each year since 2000, disaggregated for each year by observer deployment status (i.e. dual observer, single observer, and no observer), expressed in days at sea.
• For this request, “deep-sea trawl boats” means any vessel targeting orange roughy, hoki, squid, oreo, or southern blue whiting within New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), or undertaking transboundary fishing (i.e. both inside and outside the EEZ within the same voyage).

Question 2:
• I request an annualised table or simple total (if disaggregated data is not available) showing the number of fishing boats (of any fishery) in which the crew required a rescue at sea (e.g. capsized, sunk, or grounded) while a fisheries observer was on board since 2000.

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

Karina Sidaway