The ever increasing destruction of the sea-floor in Aotearoa New Zealand

The ever increasing destruction of the sea-floor in Aotearoa New Zealand

Fisheries New Zealand has recently revealed that the actual area of virgin sea floor that has been trawled for the first time in the last 10 years, is 3280km2 (or 3 times the size of Auckland)!  This is in comparison to our previous briefing on this issue that reported an area 841km2 trawled for the first time, over a five year period.

Many of our deep sea benthic habitats are made up of fragile and important ecosystems, that take hundreds of years to form, and only minutes to devastate. Research has revealed these areas take decades to show signs of recovery, if they recover at all.  WWF-NZ, along with others delivered a petition to parliament earlier this year to call for an end to trawling on seamounts and other similar features.

Read the full report here