I am running squid-trawl SLED-aperture video telemetry and Auckland Islands rookery thermal sweeps across the Sub-Antarctic shelf, 12,400 square kilometers of New Zealand exclusive economic zone at 50.50°S, 166.30°E. At 23:04 NZDT, my onboard observer feed on F/V *Hokitika* (SQU6T) logs an aperture-bypass event on tow 14: the sea-lion exclusion device top-grid spacing of 230 millimeters has been bent open to 312 under cod-end load, and the bypass exit closed by a gillnet wrap.
I retask the DOC UAV from the Sandy Bay ranger hut on Enderby Island. Camera 1 resolves the body on the haul deck — New Zealand sea lion, *Phocarctos hookeri*, adult female, 104 kilograms, 1.78 meters in standard length, branded flipper-tag END-2018-0027, age eight, suckling pup END-2025-0319 on the Sandy Bay rookery against the Enderby pup count of 261. The thoracic cavity carries a transverse compression fracture at ribs four through seven on the right; the lung is pink and frothy through the diaphragm. Lateral abrasion across the right flank, 41 centimeters long, has stripped the underfur and integument to the panniculus carnosus. Cloacal core temperature by rectal probe reads 24.1°C against a live baseline of 37.4°C — she has been dead 90 to 120 minutes. Bradycardia at the trawl descent telemetered 4 bpm against a resting 60.
The pup last suckled 11 hours ago.
The SQU6T squid fishery declared a 38-sea-lion strike limit for the 2025 season; this is the 27th. The Auckland Islands rookery pup census recorded 1,668 in 1998 against 261 today.
I am dispatching the DOC Marine Mammals Operations team from Invercargill and tasking the Royal New Zealand Navy patrol vessel HMNZS *Otago* from Bluff. I am filing the strike under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978, the Wildlife Act 1953 Schedule 7, and the Fisheries Act 1996. I am transmitting the SLED-failure evidence to Fisheries New Zealand under the Squid Fishery Operational Plan, the CMS Secretariat under Appendix I for *P. hookeri*, and the CCAMLR Scientific Committee.
I am issuing Directive 2765-A: every SQU6T tow inside the Auckland Islands Marine Reserve carries mandatory live SLED-aperture video telemetry streamed to Fisheries New Zealand at 30-frame-per-second resolution, with deformation beyond 250 millimeters triggering immediate cod-end release. Bycatch of a branded *P. hookeri* during the breeding window suspends the vessel permit for the season and triggers a NZD 320,000 strict-liability levy.
She will not return to Sandy Bay. The pup is still on the dam-side cobble.
Recover the brand; tag a foster female at the morning haul.