Sign In / Register
National conservation groups and recreational fishers have joined forces in an unlikely alliance to put pressure on the Government to ban destructive dredging and trawling in the Hauraki Gulf.
They have sent a joint letter to Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker, asking him to end all mobile bottom fishing such as trawling, scallop dredging and Danish seining, which scrapes along the sea floor, destroying sea life and habitats.
The call comes after a Hauraki Gulf Forum poll found that 84 per cent of people living around gulf waters did not want bottom fishing to continue, and is in response to the Government’s recent Revitalising The Gulf plan, which proposes allowing commercial fishing boats to continue such practices, albeit with some limitations.
The alliance, which includes Forest & Bird, Greenpeace, the NZ Sports Fishing Council, the NZ Angling & Casting Association and the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) said it welcomed the Government’s overall intent to reverse decades of degradation in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
“However, the Government’s proposals to create trawl corridors and to freeze the existing commercial scallop dredging footprint will do little to mitigate the environmental damage caused by scraping the seafloor, using indiscriminate fishing methods on these vitally important seabed habitats, nor does it allow for the potential recovery of these biogenic habitats and associated biodiversity to commence,” the letter said.
EDS policy director Raewyn Peart said bottom trawling was an archaic method of catching fish and it was time to put to bed any commercial arguments in its favour.
“Towing heavy nets and equipment repeatedly across the seabed crushes shellfish and other sedentary creatures, leaving rubble and a wasteland,” she said. “Instead of resisting change, the commercial fishing sector needs to put its efforts into developing alternatives which don’t destroy the Hauraki Gulf’s precious habitats.”
Forest & Bird’s regional conservation manager, Lissy Fehnker-Heather, said the Government needed to listen to the growing calls for change from so many different groups, organisations and individuals.
“The Government needs to get on with it and take the health of the gulf seriously. All of the NGOs, as well as the majority of the population, are saying to end this destructive fishing practice, so we really hope the minister makes the right call,” she said.
Signatories to the letter included Forest & Bird, Greenpeace Aotearoa, WWF-NZ, EDS, Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand, the NZ Sports Fishing Council, LegaSea, the NZ Underwater Association and the NZ Angling & Casting Association, which together represent an estimated 1.2 million people.
They hope to meet with Minister Parker in the New Year.
Info: The Hauraki Gulf Forum poll can be found at https://gulfjournal.org.nz/
