Media Release
Wednesday 22 February
The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) has given the green light to destroying 30% of vulnerable deep-water corals and sponges and failed to protect hotspots for life in the deep.
By Karli Thomas, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition Aotearoa
New Zealand is the only country still bottom trawling in the South Pacific, and last season just a single vessel was trawling in international waters, catching 20 tonnes of orange roughy. Meanwhile, a prosecution got underway yesterday of a New Zealand vessel that destroyed deep sea coral in the South Pacific in 2020.
Continue reading New Zealand’s bottom trawling isolation continues in the South Pacific
Check out the top stories from the deep, taken from coverage between 19-26 September 2022
PRESS RELEASE
23.9.22
The European Union has agreed new measures to protect seamounts from bottom trawling, showing up the New Zealand government’s inaction on the issue, environment groups said today.
Meanwhile, a NIWA study released this week has revealed that there are 1,996 seamounts and features in New Zealand waters. A proposal is being pushed by industry that only recognises 7% of these seamounts, and would leave all the areas they currently trawl unprotected.
On May 12th the Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand (ECO) co-hosted a webinar with Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM), LegaSea, Greenpeace Aotearoa, and the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.
The webinar on “Seabed mining: The threat on our doorstep” delved into the history of seabed mining in New Zealand, the communities opposing seabed mining proposals, the threats and how we can all take action.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of the Māori Party, said: “Throughout this battle we have had our cultural concerns ignored… and this is the battle for a lot of indigenous people. It has been a really hard battle to have governments and courts recognise the rights of indigenous people.”
Catch up on the webinar here
PRESS RELEASE
Environmentalists and recreational fishing groups today heralded the guilty verdict delivered to a Talley’s-owned bottom trawler, the Amaltal Apollo, and its skipper, for illegally bottom trawling on seamounts in international waters.
Source: Stuff
Author: Andrea Vance
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has joined calls to ban bottom trawling on seamounts.
Clark acknowledged that the ocean is under mounting pressure from the impacts of climate change and bottom trawling, whilst facing a new emerging threat, deep-sea mining.
Source: Otago Daily Times
Author: Oscar Francis
A new mural being painted in Dunedin, New Zealand aims to highlight the environmental damage caused by deep-sea trawlers in New Zealand.
New Zealand’s deep-sea biodiversity hotspots are at risk from the destructive bottom trawling with New Zealand the only country left in the South Pacific to allow the practice.
The mural painted by Artist Cinzah Merkens is the latest in the DSCC’s Defend The Deep series with one in Auckland already completed and one in Ragalan and Wellington yet to come.
Read the article in full here
Source: Greenpeace
Author: Adam Currie
A new Horizon poll has shown overwhelming support to ban. bottom trawling on seamounts amongst the New Zealand public.
Continue reading Nearly 80% of New Zealanders want bottom trawling on seamounts banned
30 September 2021
MEDIA RELEASE
New Zealand Supreme Court puts the brakes on seabed mining.
New Zealand’s Supreme Court has denied seabed miners, Trans Tasman Resources, permission to mine the South Taranaki Bight. The mining operation would see 50 million tonnes of seabed dug up every year for 35 years, removing five million tonnes of iron ore, with 45 million tonnes of material dumped back into the ocean.
Continue reading New Zealand’s Supreme Court says ‘no’ to seabed mining
