New Zealand sea lions once lived throughout New Zealand, but over-harvesting decimated their population.
There are now only 12,000 New Zealand sea lions and they primarily reside in the Subantarctic Islands, the Otago Region and the Southland Region.
According to Forest & Bird, over the past decade more than 700 sea lions have been killed in the Subantarctic squid trawl fishery, majority of who were females – the bedrock of the population.
In 2007, trawlers introduced Sea Lion Exclusion Devices (SLEDs), which are steel grills that enable sea lions to escape from the trawl net before they drown.
You can help sea lions by avoiding eating trawl caught squid, by checking out the Best Fish Guide. The guide works by using a traffic light system to rank more than 85 commercial seafood species and the fisheries are assessed to determine which are the least and the most damaging to the marine environment.
Download sustainable seafood recipes by Annabel Langbein, Al Brown, Brett McGregor, Julie Biuso, Chef Grace Ramirez, Shaun Clouston, Lauraine Jacobs and more at http://bestfishguide.org.nz/.
