New fisheries data has reinforced the disastrous impact
of commercial trawling, showing New Zealand trawlers
reported hauling up more than 35,000kg of protected coral
and sponges over a six and a half year period – despite the
fishing industry claiming they avoid coral
habitats.
Environmental groups are calling the figure
“staggering”, and say it’s yet more evidence for why
bottom trawling cannot continue on vulnerable habitats like
seamounts, where corals thrive.
Greenpeace’s Ellie
Hooper says: “The fishing industry is on a PR offensive,
claiming they don’t trawl where corals grow. But this is
misleading the public in terms of their impact on the ocean.
No amount of PR spin can explain away over 35 tonnes of
coral coming up in their nets.
“We cannot trawl our
way to a healthy ocean, and the evidence has been clear for
some time that change is urgently needed. Political parties
must act to protect the most vulnerable habitats like
seamounts from bottom trawling.”
The data, which is
reported coral bycatch from the fishing industry and was released
by MPI, shows that commercial trawlers caught 35,640 kg
of coral and sponges within New Zealand waters between
October 2019 and March 2026.
The Chatham Rise, off the
South Island’s east coast, had the most damage, with
20,000kg seabed bycatch reported – nearly 60% of the total
caught by trawlers in the time period. The Sub Antarctic
region and South East fisheries areas followed. These areas
are characterised by seamounts and other other vulnerable
marine ecosystems, that are often home to coral and diverse
ocean life.
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Karli Thomas, of the Deep Sea Conservation
Coalition says: “Corals and sponges are vital to ocean
health – creating crucial habitats in the deep sea and
supporting rich and diverse ecosystems. Deep sea corals grow
incredibly slowly and can live to be hundreds or even
thousands of years old, but can be reduced to rubble in
seconds by trawl nets.” (1.)
The 35,640kg of coral
recorded as bycatch is likely just the tip of the iceberg
when it comes to the scale of destruction. Most coral that
gets destroyed by trawling doesn’t make it into the net to
be hauled aboard and weighed, most remains on the seabed.
This means that with a bycatch of 35 tonnes, the amount
actually destroyed could be between 3,849 – 12,118 tonnes.
(2.)
Thomas also points to information that came to
light during a 2022 government-run Forum looking at limiting
bottom trawling.
Information presented at the Forum
showed closing all seamounts in New Zealand waters would
only reduce fishing value by 6%, assuming the fish weren’t
caught elsewhere.
“The industry and their Minister
claim environmental protections would put fishers out of
business. The data shows that’s not true – and in reality
the way they are fishing is destroying their fishery, and
decimating other ocean life.”
Chair of ECO, Barry
Weeber, agrees that the biggest risk to fishing industry
jobs is the fishing industry itself, pointing to the recent
collapse of the world’s largest orange roughy fishery on
the Chatham Rise. Populations were so low, some seasonal
area closures have been implemented to protect spawning
grounds.
“Closing vital habitats only when fish
populations are collapsing is the ambulance at the bottom of
the cliff. If New Zealand doesn’t start managing fisheries
better, which must include closing areas that are sensitive
and known to be important to fish spawning, then we will see
further collapses. Industry recklessness has an incredible
impact with declining ocean health and industry
employment.”
Ocean protection is high on the election
year agenda, with a WWF
poll from June showing 90% of New Zealanders want action
on bottom trawling. Thousands also submitted against the
Fisheries Amendment Bill that would have incentivised the
method.
“The scale of trawling’s destruction is
abundantly clear,” says Greenpeace’s Ellie Hooper. “A
transition away from bottom trawling should have started
decades ago, but nothing was done. It is simply not good
enough for politicians, or industry, to tell New Zealanders
in 2026 that they refuse to change.”
The country’s
position on bottom trawling will be under the microscope at
an international fisheries meeting this week, as countries
met for the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management
Organisation scientific committee.
New Zealand remains
the only country bottom trawling the high seas, or
international waters, of the South Pacific, and has
previously blocked moves to protect vulnerable habitats in
this area.
Notes:
1. The oldest corals
recorded in New Zealand waters are black corals over 2,000
years old. Reference: Tracey, D.M. & Hjorvarsdottir, F.
(eds, comps) (2019) The
State of Knowledge of Deep-Sea Corals in the New Zealand
Region. NIWA Science and Technology Series No.
842.
2. R. Pitcher, A. Williams and L. Georgeson
(2019) Progress
with investigating uncertainty in the habitat suitability
model predictions and VME indicator taxa thresholds
underpinning CMM 03-2019. SPRFMO SC7-DW21_rev1,
September
2019
