I recently took part in a science led process to limit the impacts of bottom trawling & Danish seining in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. I found the narrow scope of the work quite frustrating. The fishing industry knows it has a social license issue with bottom trawling and made a video to address it. The cartoons don’t tackle key concerns with the fishing method. I have made some graphics to point out the key issues focusing on the smaller (<20m) bottom trawlers that scrape the seafloor of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
Bottom trawling is a problem for much of New Zealand’s EEZ and beyond. Feel free to download and use the graphics, let me know if you want them at a higher resolution.
Fisheries New Zealand (2022). Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2021. Compiled by the Aquatic Environment Team, Fisheries Science and Information, Fisheries New Zealand, Wellington New Zealand. Jones, E.G., MacGibbon, D.J., Baird, S.J., Hurst, R.. (2021). Gear use in New Zealand inshore trawl fisheries. New Zealand Fisheries Assessment Report 2021/30. ISBN 978-1-99-100927-2 Mormede, S.; Sharp, B.; Roux, M.J.; Parker, S. (2017). Methods development for spatially-explicit bottom fishing impact evaluation within SPRFMO: 1. Fishery footprint estimation. SC5-DW06. 5th Meeting of the Scientific Committee Shanghai, China, 23 – 28 September 2017. Eayrs S. Craig T. Short K. (2020). Mitigation techniques to reduce benthic impacts of trawling. Report prepared for the Department of Conservation. Wellington, New Zealand: Terra Moana Calculation: 7,658 Trawls 2016-19. 7,658*13.5km (12-15km per trawl) = 103,383kms / 3years = 34,461kms PA. Length of NZ = 1,600km. 34,461km / 1,600km = 21.5. 21 times the length of Aotearoa.Management Action 1.1.1 in the draft Fisheries Management Plan promised to “Exclude bottom trawling and Danish seining from the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park (HGMP). Designate corridors suitable for bottom trawling and Danish seining and create exemptions from the ban for these corridors.” “Exclude bottom trawling and Danish seining from the Hauraki Gulf except within defined areas or ‘corridors’.” Ferdinand K.J. Oberle, Curt D. Storlazzi, Till J.J. Hanebuth. What a drag: Quantifying the global impact of chronic bottom trawling on continental shelf sediment. Journal of Marine Systems.Volume 159, 2016. ISSN 0924-7963 Pilskaln, C. H., Churchill, J. H., & Mayer, L. M. (1998). Resuspension of Sediment by Bottom Trawling in the Gulf of Maine and Potential Geochemical Consequences. Conservation Biology, 12(6), 1223–1229. MacDiarmid, A., McKenzie, A., Sturman, J., Beaumont, J., Mikaloff-Fletcher, S., Dunne, J. (2012). Assessment of anthropogenic threats to New Zealand marine habitats. New Zealand Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Report No. 93 Sala, E., Mayorga, J., Bradley, D. et al. Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate. Nature 592, 397–402 (2021). Please sign this petition .
My op-ed on bottom trawling in the Gulf published in Newsroom
