A New Zealand bottom trawler that was convicted, forfeited, and fined just last year for destroying deep sea corals has done so again, bringing the government’s weak stance on ocean protection into clear view, environment groups say.
The New Zealand Government has reported the damage done by Tasman Viking (owned by Westfleet, a 50 percent joint venture of Sealord) to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Organisation (SPRFMO) as an “encounter” with a vulnerable marine ecosystem on the Lord Howe Rise, in the international waters of the Tasman Sea.
It is understood that the vessel trawled up multiple species of corals, including deep water reef-building corals, exceeding the weight limits for coral bycatch set by SPRFMO.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Government announced - at the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Colombia - that it is committing $10 million to a global fund for coastal coral reef protection.
“Funding coral reef conservation is a good thing, but it's a hollow commitment from the New Zealand government when it continues to authorise companies to bottom trawl on seamounts and other vulnerable marine ecosystems that are hotspots of coral diversity,” says Karli Thomas of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.
”The global community has agreed that the destruction of corals in international waters must stop. This latest incident underlines why New Zealand and other bottom trawling countries need to be held to account for their destruction of vulnerable marine ecosystems that 20 years of CBD and United Nations resolutions have said must be protected,” says Thomas.
“It’s ironic that we're seeing leadership from Australia on ocean conservation, including in the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea, when our own government seems utterly determined to go backwards on these issues,” says WWF-New Zealand’s CEO Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb.
“Aotearoa New Zealand has no credible plan to meet the marine protection and sustainable fisheries commitments it has made – and continues to make – on the global stage. The Coalition Government continues to talk out of both sides of its mouth, waging a war on nature and pandering to industry lobbyists at home, while talking up our ‘clean, green image’ overseas,” says Dr Kingdon-Bebb.
Greenpeace Aotearoa oceans campaigner Juan Parada says: “It’s beyond embarrassing that New Zealand is the last and only country still trawling the South Pacific high seas, bulldozing coral and marine life like an environmental vandal.
"While the international community convenes around ocean protection under the new Global Ocean Treaty, New Zealand remains an outlier, blocking efforts to restrict bottom trawling in international waters while continuing to trash biodiversity hotspots. Bottom trawling seamounts is a destructive fishing method and it’s time New Zealand left it behind for good.”
Barry Weeber of ECO says: "While the New Zealand Government has blocked further measures in SPRFMO to protect these precious marine ecosystems, arguing they’re not needed, this incident clearly demonstrates they are, given our vessels are continually failing to operate without impacting vulnerable species. This again calls into question the Government’s ongoing authorisation of vessels like this."
This incident also undermines Australia’s renewed efforts on ocean protection: this latest encounter happened just days before the Australian government held the first Global Nature Positive Summit where Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced funding for scientific work needed to support the establishment of a new high seas marine protected area (MPA) in the Lord Howe Rise, describing the area as a “volcanic lost world".
Australians shocked
“It's shocking that New Zealand bottom trawlers are still allowed to carve a trail of destruction through the ecologically significant waters between our two countries. Australians understand the importance of flourishing coral ecosystems and the rich ocean wildlife they support, and would be outraged to know these ancient coral gardens in our big blue backyard are being torn up by New Zealand fishing trawlers,” says Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner Violette Snow.
“The ocean is one connected body of water – it's high time we protect the high seas, and we urge both the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand governments to quickly ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and work together to protect the Tasman Sea.”
ENDS
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) is an international coalition of over 100 groups working for the protection of deep sea life. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the DSCC and its member groups are calling for an end to bottom trawling on seamounts and similar features. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for this destructive fishery to be banned, and recent polling indicates that 73% of New Zealanders agree.