Help stop destructive bottom trawling!
© Francisco Jesus Navarro Hernandez

Help stop destructive bottom trawling!

Join the fight to ban bottom trawling over seamounts in Aotearoa and the South Pacific!

Save deep sea corals from seabed trawling

Deep sea corals take centuries to grow - but can be destroyed in minutes.

Seamounts (undersea mountains) are home to dense corals. They are nurseries and breeding grounds for all kinds of ocean life and are critical for the wellbeing of our planet.

Yet right now, bottom trawling is destroying tonnes of ancient deep sea coral each year.

New Zealand is the only country still bottom trawling on seamounts in the South Pacific. Ecosystems are in crisis and time is running out to save our ocean.

We must act now to protect coral and stop bottom trawling on seamounts and similar places.

The Minister of Oceans and Fisheries has the power to protect these critical coral reefs. 

Our Petition to the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries

To: The Minister 
CC: CEOs MPI and DOC

WE MUST BAN BOTTOM TRAWLING ON SEAMOUNTS

Deep sea corals play a vital role in our ecosystems and are essential for the wellbeing of our ocean. These precious corals take centuries to grow, but can take only minutes to destroy. And each year, tonnes of deep sea corals are destroyed by bottom trawling.
 
I call on the New Zealand government to ban bottom trawling on seamounts and protect these taonga from destructive bottom trawling.
 
As the Minister responsible for protecting marine life and managing New Zealand’s fisheries, I ask that you amend legislation to ban trawling on seamounts and similar deep-sea features.
 
New Zealand fishing companies send trawl vessels out to bottom trawl on seamounts and similar features on the high seas. I ask that you stop issuing high seas permits for bottom trawlers.
 
Deep sea corals are critical for the wellbeing of our planet, and we need to act quickly protect them.

Erling Svensen / WWF

CORAL IS CRITICAL FOR ECOSYSTEMS

Deep-sea corals - found on seamounts (under-sea mountains) - form the habitat of countless diverse and irreplaceable species. They are teeming with marine life, and new deep sea creatures are being discovered there all the time.

Deep sea corals are mostly slow growing, have low natural mortality and extreme longevity - some even reaching thousands of years. For example, an Aotearoa study found that black coral Antipathari from the Chatham Rise taken at a depth of 870m was aged between 909 – 2,672 years old.

Deep sea coral is a vital part of the ecosystem and are critical for the wellbeing of our ocean and our planet.

© AFMA

DESTRUCTIVE SEABED TRAWLING

Fishing companies drag heavily weighted nets across the seabed to catch fish like orange roughy and in the process they can destroy entire communities of marine life. New research shows that even after 15 years, heavily trawled seamounts have not even begun to recover.

New Zealand is now the only country still bottom trawling on seamounts in the South Pacific. There are no regulations or limits on the amount of endangered coral that can be impacted and brought up in nets.

It is time to call it a day for this destructive fishery. New Zealand must end bottom trawling on seamounts, and instead support research, innovation and protection of these deep-sea taonga.