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Bottom trawling is a controversial fishing practice because of its destructive nature.
Northern communities were shocked to learn last week that a bottom trawling commercial fishing vessel was patrolling around the Hen and Chickens Islands near Mangawhai.
There has been an increased presence of commercial fishing vessels in local waters recently, as they homeport in Whangarei, having been displaced from Auckland by the Americas Cup.
LegaSea, which campaigns for sustainable fishing, posted a picture online of the Sanford trawler near Mangawhai, which provoked more than 300 comments and shares.
Nearshore commercial trawling is a controversial practice because of the damage it causes to the seafloor.
LegaSea spokesperson Sam Woolford says his marine tracking records show the vessel patrolled between the Hen and Chicks Islands and Poor Knights Islands over a period of three days in a formation consistent with trawling.
But Sanford spokesperson Fiona MacMillan says the vessel did not fish within 18.5km of the shore.
She adds Sanford has a voluntary policy of not fishing within 3.7km of any coast.
Sam Woolford says bottom trawling eviscerates invertebrate species and seaweed habitats on the seafloor, and the damaged seafloor can take anywhere between nine and 12 years to recover.
“Unfortunately, by fishing around the Hen and Chicks, Sanford weren’t actually doing anything illegal, which is why regulation needs to change.”
Meanwhile, LegaSea has started a petition for sweeping reforms of the fishing Quota Management System (QMS), including provisions against nearshore bottom trawling.
It has gained 11,600 signatures so far.
LegaSea is suggesting that the government should radically overhaul the management system by spending $1.2 billion to buy all of the quota back from the fishing industry.
It should then scrap the QMS system in favour of a licensing system that would bring a continuous income stream for the government and increased control over allowances.
“We expect the Government would recoup its money within 12 years, and then funds could be used for environmental research on how to protect ecosystems.”
Sam points out that there is still an 80-tonne catch limit for crayfish for commercial fishing, despite crayfish being declared functionally extinct in the Hauraki Gulf.
Another destructive practice is purse seining fishing (which uses a net to trap fish) because it swallows up huge amounts of fish.
“Industry practice is to purse sein fish during spawning, when fish collect together, which then impacts how many fish are able to reproduce.”
He says different species of fish, such as snapper and trevally, school together, and when a net pulls up large quantities of the wrong species of fish for the company’s quota, the dead fish are then dumped.
“What we want to stop with this petition is the environmental destruction and killing of fish.”
Sam says LegaSea wants a new licensing system to decentralise control of fishing quotas and provide opportunities for regional businesses to fish their own waters.
“We want to see industry revived in traditional fishing towns like Mangawhai and Leigh.”
Once the Rescue Fish petition reaches 50,000 signatures it will be presented to the Government.
