Scientific name: |
Mora moro |
Other names: |
Deepsea cod, googly-eyed cod, white cod, mora |
Ribaldo is a worst choice seafood. An alternative is blue cod??
This deep-sea relative of red cod occurs around New Zealand and southern Australia at depths of 200 to 1,300m. It is most common between 500m and 1,000m and is caught as bycatch in deepwater trawling and longlining. In recent years most of the catch comes from longlining for ling but, historically, from the late 1970s to 1990, it was a bycatch from target trawling for hoki, orange roughy and ling.
Ribaldo is caught by both bottom longlines and bottom trawls. Seabird bycatch is a concern with the longline fisheries. In the trawl fisheries, concerns are the bycatch of New Zealand fur seals and seabirds, and the impact of bottom trawling on seabed communities. Other concerns are the absence of directed research and a quantitative stock assessment, the lack of basic biological information on ribaldo, the unknown sustainability of recent catches and the commercial catch limit, plus the lack of a management plan.
Not certified under any scheme.
Ribaldo are sold in New Zealand and Australia
Asssessment output
Longline and trawl caught ribaldo were assessed. While longline-caught ribaldo ranked slightly higher than trawl caught, there was no significant difference between them: both scored red, are worst choice seafood and should be avoided.
| Score: | Both longline and trawl – D |
| Population size: | Unknown |
| Annual catch limit: | Limit set at 1,683 tonnes since 2011. |
| Recorded catch: | Reported landings of 1231 tonnes for 2014-15, which is the highest for ten years. |
| Stock trends: | Uncertain |
| MSY Status: | Unknown |
| The Ministry of Primary Industries assessment plenary report includes: | There are no accepted stock monitoring indices available for RIB 1, 2, 7, 8 & 9. RIB 3&4 (Canterbury and Chatham Rise): “Stock size is likely to remain near current levels under current catches that were well below the TACC before 2013-14.” RIB 5&6 (Southland and sub-Antarctic): “Stock size is likely to remain near current levels under current catches and TACCs.” (MPI, 2016, p1061-1065). |
| Score: | Both longline and trawl – D |
| Distribution: | Occurs around New Zealand and is moderately common around the South Island at depths of 200-1,300m. It is most common between 500-1,000m. |
| Maximum age (years): | 39+ |
| Age at sexual maturity: | Unknown |
| Growth rate: | Low |
| Reproductive output: | Medium |
| Age exploited: | Unknown |
| Ability to recover: | Low to moderate |
| Score: | Trawl – E, longline – B |
| Fishing method(s): | Trawl and longline. Most catch since 1990 is bycatch from the ling longline fishery but some is also targeted. Trawl-caught ribaldo is bycatch in the hoki and orange roughy fisheries. |
| Habitat damage: |
Trawl: Bottom trawling and midwater trawl gear fished near the seafloor damages the seabed. Bottom trawling bulldozes the sea floor, destroying complex biogenic structures including soft corals, sponges and long-lived bryozoans. Longline: Low benthic impact, but the ling target longline fishery does touch the sea floor and can impact on associated biodiversity. |
| Habitat of particular significance: | hasn’t been defined in New Zealand. |
| Bycatch: | Non-threatened bycatch include deepwater sharks, juvenile fish like hoki, and non-target fish like hake and silver warehou, which are caught in West Coast hoki fisheries. |
| Ecological effects: | As a bycatch species in the ling fishery, this fish is associated with impacts on vulnerable seabird species and removal of a range of non-target fish from marine food webs. When caught by trawling, it is associated with significant alterations to deepwater ecosystem and species diversity. |
| Score: | Both trawl and longline – E |
| Bycatch: |
Trawling: Ribaldo is caught as bycatch in the hoki trawl and other mid to deepwater trawl fisheries. Bycatch includes about 160 seabirds caught annually in the ling trawl fishery, including threatened species (e.g. white-chinned petrels, Salvin’s albatross, flesh-footed shearwaters, and sooty shearwaters). Over 90 New Zealand fur seals are caught annually in the middle depth trawl fishery including about 20 caught targeting ling. The sub-Antarctic and Snares Shelf hoki fishery has a low capture rate for endangered New Zealand sea lions of about one a year. Protected coral species were reported caught in the ling target fishery in LIN 3, 4 and 6 (Chatham Rise, off Canterbury and the sub-Antarctic). The corals caught include gorgonian, hydrocorals, black corals (Antipatharia) and stony corals (Scleractinia) – which includes reef-like, tree-like, and solitary small corals. As ling is also caught in the hoki fishery, the hoki bycatch is relevant: it is estimated that 192 fur seals are captured in the hoki fishery (5-year average). Based on the recent catch spread of hoki, the main captures occurs in the Cook Strait (54%), off West Coast of the South Island (24%), off east coast of the South Island and Chatham Rise (15%). The hoki fishery catches about half of the estimated fur seals caught by trawling. The sub-Antarctic and Snares Shelf hoki fishery has a low capture rate for nationally critical New Zealand sea lions of about one a year. The trawl fishery also captures about 1420 seabirds a year Longline: Ribaldo is caught as bycatch primarily in the ling longline fishery. In the ling target bottom longline fishery over 700 threatened seabird species are caught annually, including the critically endangered Chatham’s albatross and other threatened species (e.g. white-chinned petrels, grey petrels, Salvin’s albatross, flesh-footed shearwaters, and sooty shearwaters). The main fish bycatch species are spiny dogfish, sea perch, sharks and skates and ribaldo. Spiny dogfish makes up about 13% of the catch and half of that is discarded. Other sharks caught include vulnerable deepwater sharks (e.g. shovelnose dogfish and seal shark). Up to 2500 tonnes of fish are discarded annually in the ling longline fishery. |
| Score: | Both trawl and longline – B |
| Management component: | Single species but there is some uncertainty about stock structure and boundaries. |
| Score: | Both trawl and longline – E |
| Quota Management Species: | Yes, since 1998. |
| Catch limits: | Yes |
| Management plan: | Deepwater management plan for 2010-15 is out of date, and has yet to be reviewed and replaced. Ribaldo 3 to 8 are an associated species with the ling target species in the current plan. There is no operational plan and the old Deepwater plan lacks key environmental standards. The National Plans of Action on Seabirds and Sharks are more relevant to bycatch issues but they are slow to be implemented. There is no inshore plan for Ribaldo 1 and 2. |
| Stock assessment: | No quantitative stock assessment. |
| Research: | A 10-year planned deepwater research plan has been replaced (after 5 years) with an annual planning process with unclear commitments. There is little research carried out into ribaldo. |
| Observer coverage: | Observer coverage in the middle depth trawl (which includes ling), and in the target ling longline fishery is about 17% for both small and large longliners. Observer coverage in the hoki target fishery is 27.3%. The middle depth trawl is unlikely to be spatially or temporally representative of the fishing effort. |
Fisheries map
Taken from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Plenary report for fisheries management.
References
Paste here.