On the back of a petition, the Government is weighing up further restrictions on bottom trawling in fragile, underwater eco-systems. But the fishing industry says calls to ban the controversial practice are based on misinformation. Andrea Vance reports.
Just after dawn, on a bitterly cold September morning, five activists and their skipper slipped out of Bluff Harbour in a rigid inflatable boat.
For four hours they huddled in the bow as the churning seas buffeted the pontoons and the Roaring Forties whipped around them.
Eventually, the rusted hull of an enormous trawler rose out of the grey gloom, the sign they had reached their destination. Fiordlands snow-capped mountains rose from the shore behind them.
The vessel was positioned over the Puysegur Bank, a ridge deep beneath the shifting waves, and a productive fishing ground.
READ MORE:* Fisheries group opposes ban on bottom trawling of seamounts* Political reality means the Government won't act to protect oceans* This Is How It Ends: How we're driving our distinctive native penguins towards extinction
Shani Bennett/Stuff
A catch of mainly orange roughy caught in the Tasman Sea.
Film the Trawlers is a new project, begun by environmentalist Siana Fitzjohn, to document the activities of New Zealands commercial fishing fleet.
Top of mind is bottom trawling, a now controversial fishing practice where weighted nets are dragged along the sea floor, hauling some of our most popular fish: orange roughy, hoki and oreo.
The trawl doors disturb the sea bed, stirring up sediment which hides the net and generates a noise which attracts fish.
At first they swim in front of the net mouth, but as they tire they slip backwards into the net, finally falling exhausted into the tapered cod end.
For hours, the team watched, filmed and photographed as the San Discovery, a Sanford Limited trawler, worked. Also on board was Jasmine Black, who spent five years on Sealord trawlers.
Further south lies the Puysegur Benthic Protection Area, west of Stewart Island, where bottom trawling is restricted. In March Sanford Limited was ordered to forfeit a $20 million vessel, and fined $36,000 for illegally targeting orange roughy there in 2017 and 2018.
We're setting out to film the biggest and most destructive factory trawlers operating around Aotearoa, Canterbury-based Fitzjohn, 30, says. She has also campaigned for climate action group Extinction Rebellion.
Bottom trawling is out of sight and out of mind for most of us, because we can't see the nets scraping along the ocean floor picking up everything in their path. We want to meet the trawlers at sea and make these companies feel witnessed by the public.
Iain McGregor/Stuff
Siana Fitzjohn says her project aims to bear witness to industrial fishing practices.
The Puysegur Bank has multiple seamounts, ocean floor landforms which create an upwelling of nutrients. These attract marine species to feed, and for centuries have been known as good fishing sites.
But this ocean twilight zone is also home to delicate, slow-growing coral, and sea sponges, which are destroyed by the heavy fishing gear the doors that keep the nets open can weigh as much as 200kg.
New Zealand doesnt have the shallow, tropical reefs we often associate with coral. Its deepwater varieties provide habitat, sanctuary, and nursery areas for many other species.
These forests are often ancient samples of black coral taken from the Chatham Rise off the East Coast were estimated to be as old as 2,672 years. Bubblegum coral was aged between 300-500 years old.
IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF
Mui dolphin and the New Zealand sea lion are on a countdown to extinction so why do politicians drag their feet?
Seldom seen or explored by humans, these underwater mountains are the focus of growing political awareness about the environmental impacts of industrial fishing.
Bottom trawling was also implicated in the collapse of populations including orange roughy and hoki.
In 2015, Chile became the first nation in the world to permanently ban bottom trawling around seamounts within its exclusive economic zone (its ocean jurisdiction).
A year ago, the Deep-Sea Conservation Coalition, an alliance of 90 NGOs, delivered a petition to Parliament, calling for a ban on bottom trawling on seamounts in New Zealands waters.
They argue little or no bottom trawling occurs on seamounts in the high seas in other oceans.
Iain McGregor/Stuff
Eugenie Sage is chair of a select committee deliberating over a ban on trawling seamounts.
The Environment Select Committee is considering the petition, signed by 52,000. It is chaired by MP Eugenie Sage, whos Green Party has gone even further, pushing for a total ban across New Zealands four million square kilometres of ocean.
Separately from the select committee process, Oceans and Fisheries Minister David has confirmed to Stuff that officials are working on new measures.
We are taking steps to review whether the current management settings relating to bottom trawling on seamounts and seamount-like features need to be amended, he said.
Fisheries New Zealand is working with the Department of Conservation to establish a forum to discuss approaches to managing the effects of trawling on the benthic environment in New Zealands Exclusive Economic Zone.
He said it is hoped the forums work would begin early next year.
The forums discussions will be supported by use of a spatial decision support tool that incorporates the best available information on the distribution of benthic species, fishing activities, and seamounts and seamount-like features.
In the last week Greenpeace presented a new, 60-page report to the select committee, which details the extent of rare, endemic species of coral found on seamounts, and how the depths that they live in overlap with commercial trawling.
It shows is that some of the rarest, unique corals found in Aotearoa are vastly unprotected from destructive fishing, oceans campaigner Ellie Hooper said.
The places where these corals live are the depths bottom trawlers operate at, and that the majority of seamounts in New Zealand are unprotected from this fishing method.
The report details how 196 endemic coral species, some of which are listed as protected by the Department of Conservation are vulnerable, because trawling is permitted in their habitat.
Protection doesnt mean anything in this case. Commercial fishing companies are permitted to destroy an unlimited amount of them, dragging heavy, weighted nets right through where they live, she said.
The latest report from DOC indicates seven tonnes of protected coral was dragged up by trawlers in last years fishing season alone.
Descend NZ/Matt Green
Black coral is among the fragile species at risk from bottom trawling.
Fisheries New Zealand data shows that in the 11 years between 2007 and 2018, 21 per cent of the fishable area within New Zealands waters was bottom-trawled.
And Greenpeace fears fleets are expanding into new unfished areas: in the 2017/18 fishing season, 455 square kilometres were trawled for the first time.
The DSCC also argues that New Zealand is now the only country bottom trawling every year in the South Pacific. As of April 2021, the government has issued permits to six trawl vessels belonging to four companies to fish in international waters of the South Pacific.
And the coalition points to recent convictions for illegal fishing in closed areas. Only one of the six New Zealand bottom trawl vessels currently permitted to trawl in the South Pacific belongs to a company that hasnt been convicted in the past year of illegal fishing in closed areas, the coalitions evidence to select committee states.
Nick Tapp/Greenpeace
Representatives from seven environmental groups presented a petition to ban bottom trawling on a giant model of paragorgia (bubblegum) coral outside Parliament in November 2020.
However, the $4.18 billion fishing industry is strongly urging the Government to reject the petition. It estimates 90 per cent of the catch, for both inshore and deep sea fisheries, comes from bottom trawling.
Collin Williams is Sanfords general manager of fishing, and has almost four decades in the sector, including a decade in compliance at the then-Ministry of Fisheries.
Close to 94 per cent of the companys catch is bottom-trawled. And there is no alternative to net the type of fish in demand from consumers, the ingredients in our freezer favourites like fish fingers.
The species that we bottom trawl are demersal fish, they're literally on the bottom. Things like orange roughy, hoki, you don't catch them with long lines.
We catch it by the most efficient and economical, and viable method to catch the volumes that we need to catch.
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
A graphic from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition illustrating what bottom trawling is.
Williams argues only 3.5 per cent, or 122,000sq km of the EEZ is subject to bottom trawling operations.
Since 2006, bottom trawling has been banned in a third of New Zealand's waters (although a large percentage of these areas were never viable for the method in the first place).
Williams says vessels furrow repeatedly over the same narrow tracks they wouldnt plunder an entire seamount.
A trawl corridor or trawl lane down a feature like that is a very narrow sector. We go to the same place, for very good reasons. We are not in the business of harvesting coral, we are in the business of harvesting fish.
As a result, much of what is hauled up is dead rubble, not live coral.
And he contends it has environmental benefits. Fish is one of the most carbon friendly, sustainable, sources of protein in the world. So it's a real positive food contributor for arguably the least damage to any terrestrial or subterranean.
One overseas study claims trawling releases more carbon in a year than the pre-Covid global aviation industry, but the industry strongly disputes its findings.
The sector, represented at the select committee by the Deepwater Group, also takes issue with conservationists definition of a seamount.
Greenpeaces report, and the evidence submitted by DSCC, describes a seamount as an underwater feature standing over 100m, and as such there are 800 in New Zealand. It is a classification used by DOC and many NIWA scientists.
However, the Deepwater group argues the internationally accepted definition of a seamount, as understood by the International Oceanographic Commission, the International Hydrographic Organisation and the New Zealand Geographic Board, is a feature with an elevation of more than 1,000 metres.
Under that definition, there are 142 known seamounts within the EEZ, 89 per cent of which are either closed to trawling or have never been trawled.
The group further claims trawling has only occurred on 9 (or six per cent) of seamounts over the past decade.
Hooper says the industry is arguing semantics. We know coral is growing in these areas.
Getting into what we define as a seamount is a pointless argument it is about the depth from the surface which determines whether these corals are going to grow there.
There are a large number of people in New Zealand now who support restricting bottom trawling. They see it as important to protect native biodiversity and the ocean, which we know is struggling. What is missing is the political will to rein in the industry and protect the environment.
Stuff
The fishing industry and conservationists are in dispute about the extent of trawling on seamounts.
Doug Paulin, Sealords chief executive says the fishing industry is tightly regulated to ensure a balance between conserving biodiversity while still providing jobs and food security.
Sealord, as the countrys largest deep sea fishing company, is always interested in pushing to do more, and we have several future based action plans that we are currently developing, he said.
We are also open to discussion with the Government, the public and eNGOs [environmental non-governmental organisations] on whether or not further management measures might be required.
We need to sit down and talk and ask, what is a viable place we can get to where we can assure that conservation is absolutely maintained at a world-leading status and that food production can still occur in New Zealands EEZ, including bottom trawling.
While politicians and the industry mull over policy, Fitzjohn is planning her next mission, pouring over maps and marine traffic data.
We hope that by filming as many trawlers in as many locations as possible over the next few years, we'll be able to help connect the public to the different habitats and species under siege, and get people on board with the kind of protection measures that the ocean so desperately needs, she says.
Unless we start to connect with the industrial scale of damage being done at sea, we'll destroy a lot of the precious ecology around these islands without even knowing what was there in the first place.
Read the rest here:
Trawling for the truth - why New Zealand's main method of fishing is so controversial - Stuff.co.nz
- High seas drama: Cruise ship bound for Bahamas is diverted to Portland - Mainebiz - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- African Ports Overwhelmed By Red Sea Reroutings - gCaptain - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- Party Pirates: A Hilarious Co-op Adventure on the High Seas - Game Is Hard - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- Boat sinks in high seas off Malpe, eight fishermen rescued - Public TV English - December 22nd, 2023 [December 22nd, 2023]
- Arena's Swept Away is a Dark Tale on the High Seas with Music by Grammy Winners The Avett Brothers - The Zebra - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Money Memories: Finances on the high seas - Louisville Public Media - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- The Arctic Sunrise II Does the ISA have 'enforcement jurisdiction' on the High Seas? - EJIL: Talk! - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Severe Weather Impacting Multiple Cruise Ships - Cruise Hive - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Taking to the high seas for an up-close look at South Fork Wind - theday.com - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- High Waves and Rough Seas Forecast for Costa Rica Coasts - The Tico Times - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Diesel theft on the high seas: When international cargo ships meet fishing boats in the dead of night - The Indian Express - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Meet the couple who've been on more than 200 cruises - and love life on the high seas so much they're selling - Daily Mail - December 16th, 2023 [December 16th, 2023]
- Report to Congress on the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention - USNI ... - USNI News - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Simplifying Docker Installation on Linux - Linux Journal - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Mallory to Present 'Oceans Apart: Global Governance Approaches to ... - University of Arkansas Newswire - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- NEWS: A NEW 'Moana' Show Is Coming to the Disney Treasure ... - AllEars.Net - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Things to do Oct. 13-19 in the Chicago suburbs, Northwest Indiana - Chicago Tribune - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Marine "Biomimetics" Could Be the Blue Economy's Next Big Hit - The Maritime Executive - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- All eyes on France this Saturday evening - Offaly Independent - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- 80s-themed cruise: A blast to the past with P&O's high-sea adventure - New Zealand Herald - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- High seas glamour: what its like to cruise the world with Cunard - Executive Traveller - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Warfare MMO Foxhole is adding naval combat complete with huge ... - PC Gamer - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- One Piece Season 2 Cast: Every Character Expected to Appear - The Direct - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- The future of Portuguese football: the pitch, the pixels, and the promise - PortuGOAL.net - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Typhoon Koinu to cause high winds, rough waters in East Sea - VietNamNet - October 10th, 2023 [October 10th, 2023]
- Governing our seas using core principles of sustainability - Mail and Guardian - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Marine Medium Speed Engine Oil Market: Navigating the High Seas ... - Digital Journal - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Threats on the high seas and the Pak-Saudi partnership - Arab News Pakistan - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- China Wants to Burn Out Southeast Asian Navies - Foreign Policy - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Sea of Thieves Will Have to Face the Reaper Sooner or Later - GameRant - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Whine Wednesdays: Pigs On The High Seas Disgusting Behavior ... - LoyaltyLobby - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Carnival Now Looks in Ship Shape for the High Seas - RealMoney - RealMoney - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Why a new UN treaty to safeguard the high seas matters | Mint - Mint - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Navigating Unfairness on the High Seas: Class Action Waiver Clauses - Lexology - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- High-Seas Search for 39 Crewmembers of Capsized Chinese ... - The Maritime Executive - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Wager by David Grann review a rollicking and nuanced history of the high seas - The Guardian - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- A musician from Sauk Prairie sees the world on the high seas - WiscNews - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- How to obtain The Major-General minion in Final Fantasy XIV - Fanbyte - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- ShipRocked 2024: Artist Lineup Revealed For Hard Rockin Adventure On The High Seas! - Icon Vs. Icon - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Local playwright's Hollerwood show premiers at West T. Hill - The ... - Interior Journal - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Meth worth several thousand crores seized from high seas by Indian Navy, NCB - The News Minute - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Salute to Sailors: Navy employs technology and training to ready sailors - WHP Harrisburg - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Ocean Race Summit Newport urges recognition of the inherent ... - The Ocean Race - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Max Reveals All of the New Titles Coming to It's Platform In May ... - Just Jared Jr. - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Fisheries: agreement reached on sustainable management of ... - Oceans and fisheries - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- United Arab Emirates formally accepts Agreement on Fisheries ... - WTO Latest News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Murky Tar Balls Reappear on Goa's Golden Beaches | Weather.com - The Weather Channel - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Study: Fishing Subsidies Support Unregulated Distant-Water Fishing - The Maritime Executive - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Rings Of Power's Morfydd Clark Hints At 'Quite A Lot Of New ... - Looper - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Chris Armstrong Short Cuts: High Seas Fishing LRB 18 May 2023 - London Review of Books - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- It's Chaos on the High Seas in New 'The Meg 2' Poster - Collider - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- From South Dakota to the high seas, the world gets less transparent - Coda Story - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Stepping up action - Nature.com - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Stricken Shiling tipped to return to Wellington the scene of its ... - Stuff - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Secretary ... - The White House - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Bangladesh: Dangerous Cyclone Mocha expected to make landfall ... - Save the Children International - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Stricken 294-metre Shiling tipped to return to Wellington - the scene ... - Stuff.co.nz - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Sneak peek: Inside Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever - The Points Guy - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War' is Celebrating Its 6th ... - Touch Arcade - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Is Deck 1 on a Cruise Ship Bad - Pros and Cons - Cruise Hive - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- US-Iran nuclear struggle is playing out on the high seas - The Telegraph - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Muscle Flexing In South China Sea: Why India-ASEAN War Games Send A Strong Signal To Beijing - ABP Live - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Everybody Has a Story: Surviving rough ride in a smelly ship - The Columbian - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Holiday warning over Majorca party boats loved by Brits as officials vow massive new crackdown... - The US Sun - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Dark waters: how the adventure of a lifetime turned to tragedy - The Guardian - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Guarding our seas and the blue economy - Philstar.com - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Driverless boats, enduring sensors on the special ops maritime menu - Defense News - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- List Of The Cleanest Cruise Ships In The World (2023) - Cruise Mummy - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- Sea of Survivors: What if Vampire Survivors and Sea of Thieves had ... - Windows Central - May 14th, 2023 [May 14th, 2023]
- All hands on deck as UN meets to protect high seas - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- 'High Seas' Season 4 Canceled at Netflix Even After Initial Renewal - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- 'High Seas' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It? - Decider - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- What Is High Seas Governance? - National Oceanic and Atmospheric ... - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- Move Over Disney: Carnival Is Grooming on the High Seas - December 23rd, 2022 [December 23rd, 2022]
- Get Your First Look at Halloween on the High Seas on the Disney Wish ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Repost: On Armistice Day, Remembering the German High Seas Fleet ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Pirates of High Seas Fest 2022 returns to Panama City Beach - November 19th, 2022 [November 19th, 2022]
- Boo! Get a First Look at Halloween on the High Seas on the Disney Wish - November 19th, 2022 [November 19th, 2022]
- Historically powerful storm to hit Alaska this weekend with seas up ... - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Explained: What is the UN High Seas Treaty, and why have countries ... - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]