Seamounts (undersea mountains) are home to dense corals. They are nurseries and breeding grounds for all kinds of ocean life and are critical for the wellbeing of our planet.
Yet right now, seabed trawling is destroying thousands of ancient deep sea coral each year.
New Zealand is the only country in the South Pacific that allows this destructive and outdated fishing practice. Ecosystems are in crisis and time is running out to save our ocean.
We must act now to protect coral and stop seabed trawling on seamounts and similar places.
Minister David Parker has the power to protect these critical coral reefs. If the Government knows New Zealanders care, they will act.
Please Sign now!
Deep-sea corals - found on seamounts (under-sea mountains) - form the habitat of countless diverse and irreplaceable species. They are teeming with marine life, and new deep sea creatures are being discovered there all the time.
Deep sea corals are mostly slow growing, have low natural mortality and extreme longevity - some even reaching thousands of years. For example, an Aotearoa study found that black coral Antipathari from the Chatham Rise taken at a depth of 870m was aged between 909 – 2,672 years old.
Deep sea coral is a vital part of our ecosystems and are critical for the wellbeing of our ocean and our planet.
Download Deep Sea Corals ReportFishing companies drag heavily weighted nets across the seabed to catch fish like orange roughy and in the process they can destroy entire communities of marine life. New research shows that even after 15 years, heavily trawled seamounts have not even begun to recover.
New Zealand is now the only country in the South Pacific to continue this outdated fishing practice. And all six New Zealand bottom trawl vessels currently permitted to trawl in the South Pacific high seas belong to companies that have been convicted in the past year of illegally fishing in closed areas.
Within New Zealand, there are no regulations or limits on the amount of endangered coral that can be impacted and brought up in nets.
It is time to call it a day for this destructive fishery. New Zealand must end bottom trawl fishing on seamounts, and instead support research, innovation and protection of these deep-sea taonga.
SIGN THE PETITION
