New Zealand has thrown away around $1.5 billion in potential revenue from fishing by dumping much of its waste at sea, a University of Auckland study claims.
The study, presented to the Environmental Defense Society conference in Auckland, reveals that up to 70 percent of a caught fish is turned into low value fishmeal, oil or simply wasted.
By contrast Iceland uses 96 percent of a fish and science is close to achieving up to 100 percent use.
The Auckland Business School study was compiled by the same people who first exposed the human rights and labor abuses aboard foreign charter fishing boats, Glenn Simmons and Christina Stringer.
Their figures show that last year finfish exports of 199,000 metric tons were worth $778.8 million. It included 59,900 metric tons of fish waste while 59,420 metric tons were dumped at sea.
