The New Zealand Government’s announcement to close 32% of the EEZ to bottom trawling does little to stop the destruction of vulnerable deep-sea life threatened by the practice, says Greenpeace.
Greenpeace took a Ministry of Fisheries 'trawling map' which shows where the fishing industry has been bottom trawling and overlaid it over the fishing industry's map of its closures. Although there are new areas added to the proposal it is nowhere near the science based protection that is needed.
The map shows that most areas proposed for closure are either too deep or too rough to bottom trawl, or are otherwise of no interest to the fishing industry because they do not contain enough bottom-trawled target fish, such as orange roughy, to be economical as fishing areas.
“Greenpeace welcomes science-based industry initiatives to close areas to bottom trawling, but the Government’s initiative does nothing to protect areas that are currently being destroyed," said Mike Hagler, Greenpeace oceans campaigner. “Most of the areas proposed for closure are of no interest to the fishing industry, there aren’t enough fish.”
Greenpeace also criticised the lack of a real consultation process from the Government in drafting this proposal and said “it’s been back room deals between the Minister and the fishing industry and environmental groups have had little consultation”.
