3.    NEW ZEALAND'S IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT: WATER AND ICE

3.1   New Zealand's immediate strategic circumstances are, for a country of our size, unique in the world. The benefits of geographical isolation are complemented by the affinities which link the people of New Zealand to those of Australia and the South Pacific. To the south the Antarctic treaty system has been in place for over 50 years, and even during the height of the cold war ensured that Antarctica was not a theatre of conflict and that New Zealand's territorial claim on the continent could stand. Problems have emerged in the effective management of valuable fish stocks in the Southern Ocean.

3.2   New Zealand has responsibility for one of the largest exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the world. The legal regimes for the management of the zone are now well established, but the economic pressures on the ecosystem and its resources will fluctuate. The delineation of New Zealand's extensive continental shelf and its maritime environment has to be completed by 2006; this will be the final definition of the oceanic ecosystem for which New Zealand has immediate responsibility. New Zealand's EEZ is also affected by our proximity to the Southern Ocean, where legal regimes to control resource exploitation either do not exist (for much of the area immediately to our south) or are very difficult to enforce (in the areas south of the Antarctic convergence governed by the Convention on the Conservation of Marine Living Resources (CCALMR) and the Madrid Protocol on resource exploitation of minerals south of 60 degrees (see annex for map of the Southern Ocean)).

3.3   The key sustainable resource in all these zones is fish. The catch effort in global fishing grounds has created pressures, some severe, on most commercial species during the past decade. The current harvesting capacity of the world's fleet far exceeds the estimated biological sustainability of most commercial species yet the demand for high quality fish continues to grow, especially in western countries and in the more developed Asian economies. Access problems in some key EEZs (eg Morocco, Argentina and Canada), decreased catch of traditional high value white fish, the decimation or serious depletion of Atlantic tuna species and the overall shortfall in global catch have increased pressures on stocks. European fishing fleets (in particular) are seeking access to new fishing areas, especially those in the eastern Indian Ocean and in the EEZs of the Pacific Island countries (PICs). In these they will compete directly with the traditional distant water fishing nations (Japan, Korea Taiwan, the US and more recently China) both for access and resources.

3.4   The demand for southern ocean toothfish continues unabated. Both unregulated and illegal fishing continues in areas where there are still commercially viable stocks. Pressures to move into the waters south of New Zealand are increasing as other alternatives are fished out. An increased expectation of access to fishing grounds in New Zealand's immediate environment combined with increased pressures on existing stocks will impact on the New Zealand fishing industry. We judge that unregulated or illegal fishing will increase in areas of concern to New Zealand. Evasion methods are likely to become more deliberate and refined as these pressures grow.

3.5   The Southern Ocean is also one of the arenas in which Japan targets the small minke whale. Japan is likely to continue with these policies.

3.6   The Antarctic treaty system is robust and effective. With more and more countries becoming members, support for the view that the treaty system should be replaced by a UN controlled international regime, once advocated by Malaysia, even if it re-emerged, would be unlikely to gain traction. Key developing nations - China, India, South Africa - are all members of the treaty system. This increased interest is accompanied by pressure on the Antarctic ecosystem, particularly in respect of tourism and fishing. The treaty processes provide a means of managing and regulating those pressures, but implementing the arrangements requires suitable monitoring and enforcement resources in an extensive and climatically hostile environment.

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