Greenpeace are at it again!

[Steve O'Shea]

...as well as some people who have been attacked by Greenpeace as "the enemy" who actually would have been open to being (or even had been) Greenpeace supporters!

... Ja, I'm a Landrover owner, 12mpg, and they're coming down pretty hard on me too. I guess that I'm guilty of a little hypocracy ... mind you, as Landrover refused to sponsor me, GO GREENPEACE, get those fuel inefficient gas guzzlers off the road (shame the pushbike cannot tow the boat)!

 

[TPOTH]

(shame the pushbike cannot tow the boat)!

crazy vision of on top of his boat, cracking the whip to *ahem* motivate? his students to tow the boat faster.... *shivers*

Similar to Archynorth, I've had long (often heated) discussion with an Icelandic friend of mine who used to work on whaling ships and trawlers (for pocket money during summer ). He couldn't see the consequences of it all and from his point of view, it was good easy money for a student and stopped only because he moved to London (and the smell was quite bad as well). After many a talk, and the producing of rational arguments backed by facts and "good" science, he realised that it was bad(tm).

To echo Monty's post, it's my impression as well that more often than not Greenpeace's actions (albeit 100% justified) alienate the "opposing faction" when conversion and education are possible. We end up with a very manichean vision (bad vs good, no grey area) in which if you're not on "our" side (whichever that may be) you're the ennemy. Yes, they raise awareness about a lot of important issues but the "follow-up" (at least in France, I'm told) is totally lacking. You'd get to see those "crazy Greenpeace folks" whizzing around in their inflatables around a massive ship, the TV anchor would turn around to face the camera, smirk, ask what will they think of next and proceed to tell you about the weather. The ideas, strategies and options offered by GP would not make it through to the general public.

In the end, Go Greenpeace
(i don't want to be towing the boat....)

TPOTH

 

[Steve O'Shea]

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/nelsonmail/0,2106,3307145a6007,00.html

Claim trawler's nets cut at sea by activists
08 June 2005
By CANESSA PHILLIPS

Nelson-based Amaltal fishing company was planning to file for an injunction against Greenpeace today, saying activists cut a trawler's nets in an act of high-seas "piracy".


"They are being attacked by a bunch of hairies and hippies with knives and gaffs," Amaltal director Andrew Talley said on Wednesday.

"We are shocked at this attack.

"It's an act of piracy."

However, Greenpeace rejects that it cut the Ocean Reward's nets with knives or gaffs in the drama on Tuesday, saying instead that activists trying to stop the vessel from bottom trawling were shot at by fishing crew armed with potatoes in compressed air guns, and were sprayed with high pressure fire hoses.

Greenpeace says the fishing crew shot at it after activists delayed the Ocean Reward from deploying its net by attaching an inflatable life-raft.

The confrontation happened about midday, 560km west of the North Island in the Tasman Sea while the Ocean Reward, a deep sea trawler, was fishing for orange roughy.

Mr Talley said he did not know if the Ocean Reward crew fired potatoes at the Greenpeace activists, or sprayed them with hoses, but if they did, they did so in defence.

After speaking to the fishing crew this morning, he said Greenpeace activists on board the protest boat Rainbow Warrior had slashed the trawler's nets in an unprovoked attack.

Several thousand dollars worth of damage had been done, he said.

The skipper was shooting the net into the water when the attack happened, and found the damage when the net was pulled out again, Mr Talley said.

"When anyone attacks a boat on the high seas it's piracy," he said. "The crew will take any steps to defend themselves."

AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Ocean Reward was seven days into a two-week fishing trip.

While Amaltal disputed Greenpeace's argument that deep sea trawling was damaging the ocean floor, Mr Talley said the matter was not about "political messages", it was about the rules of seamanship being observed.

The Rainbow Warrior was still near the Ocean Reward this morning, so to ensure there were no more problems, Amaltal planned to file an injunction against the Greenpeace vessel and skipper in court on Wednesday, citing a breach of maritime and safety rules, Mr Talley said.

Greenpeace New Zealand campaigner Carmen Gravatt said from the Rainbow Warrior today that activists were protesting peacefully, and did not use knives on the trawler's.

However, at one point an inflatable craft was unintentionally caught up in the trawler's net, and she could not rule out that the net was torn then. "We don't want to damage any of their equipment or harm their crew in any way," she said.

On Wednesday the Rainbow Warrior was staying close to the Ocean Reward, filming its practices and documenting what came out of its net.

She said deep sea trawling did incredible damage, with huge chains or rollers attached to the front of the nets destroy everything in the their path, including coral forests, as well as sponges, worm tubes, mussels, boulder fields, and rocky reefs.

"A global moratorium on bottom trawling in international waters is urgently needed."

Mr Talley said Greanpeace's talk about bottom trawling damage and unsustainability was "unsubstantiated claptrap".

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Latest release (might not have been picked up by the press yet)

Greenpeace Again Halts Bottom Trawling in International Waters

Tasman Sea, Wednesday 8 June 2005: For the second day in a row, Greenpeace has disrupted a New Zealand bottom trawler in international waters. Bottom trawling the sea floor is the biggest threat to life in the deep sea, and every trawl does incredible damage.

Using the Rainbow Warrior and inflatable boats, activists successfully stopped four trawls by the vessel, the Ocean Reward in the international waters of the Tasman Sea.

Activists first used a cable to connect the vessel's several-tonne trawl doors together, choking off the net and preventing it from being deployed. Hung from the cables were signs reading 'End Deep Sea Destruction'. Later, floating barrels reading 'Protect Deep Sea Life' were repeatedly attached to the net, forcing the vessel to haul the net back in.

"Greenpeace is taking action today because government's are failing to end the destruction," said Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Carmen Gravatt.

Less than four percent of the deep sea is rocky areas such as seamounts, ridges and plateaus. It is these few areas that hold some of the largest diversity of species and undiscovered life on earth. Unfortunately, this also means these areas are also the prime target for bottom trawlers.

"At the moment it's a race against time as bottom trawlers wipe out life in the deep sea before we even know what's down there. Every trawl we stop could save a coral forest that took hundreds of years to grow. We urgently need a moratorium on bottom trawling in international waters."

"While we did our best to stop the destruction by a bottom trawler today, the only way to protect deep sea life for the future is for governments to act."

Before taking action, the Rainbow Warrior informed the skipper of the Ocean Reward that Greenpeace were undertaking a peaceful protest and did not intend to interfere with their navigation, endanger their crew or damage equipment.

Contact:
Carmen Gravatt, Greenpeace New Zealand campaigner on board Rainbow Warrior on +872 1302412
Erin Farley, Greenpeace New Zealand communications officer on board Rainbow Warrior - +872 1302412

Dean Baigent-Mercer communications officer in Auckland 021 790 817

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Getting heated; another release (also, this might not have been picked up by the press yet).

Media release for immediate release Wednesday 8 June 2005

Maritime Union backs Greenpeace protest action against bottom trawling

The Maritime Union of New Zealand is supporting the direct action by
Greenpeace activists on the Rainbow Warrior against bottom trawling
fishing vessels in the Tasman Sea.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says it has become
obvious that overfishing and bad practices such as bottom trawling were wrecking the environment, and would also destroy the industry that depends on the environment.

"The time has come to stop talking and start direct action, because in
our experience that is the only way to get things done."

The Greenpeace action is against the practice of bottom trawling, where weighted nets are dragged along the ocean floor, tearing up the habitat of sealife and causing massive damage.

Mr Hanson says New Zealanders need to think about the livelihoods of
future generations as well as the environment.

He says the fishing industry needs to be completely overhauled with much stronger regulation and a long term strategy to overcome its problems, especially with regard to pay and conditions for workers, and the sustainability of fish stocks.

"The Maritime Union has been demanding action on the shocking treatment of overseas crews fishing in New Zealand waters, and if that is how workers are being treated we can only shudder to think of how the environment is being wrecked."

For further information contact Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor

 

[Snafflehound]

"sun green" by neil young

sun green started makin' waves
on the day her grandpa died
speakin' out against anything
unjust or packed with lies

she chained herself to a statue of an eagle
in the lobby of powerco
and started yellin' through a megaphone
"there's corruption on the highest floor"

suits poured out of elevators "they're all dirty"
phoneheads began to speak "you can't trust anybody"
but security couldn't get her down
she was welded to the eagle's beak

sun green leaned into that megaphone
and said, "truth is all i seek"
security brought in some blowtorches
news cameras recorded the speech

"when the city is plunged into darkness
by an unpredicted rolling blackout
the white house always blames the governor,
sayin', 'the solution is to vote him out'"

on top of that great bronze eagle
sun's voice was loud and clear
she said, "powerco is workin' with the white house
to paralyze our state with fear"

it was a golden moment golden moment
in the history of tv news
no one could explain it
it just got great reviews

"hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too"

the imitators were playin'
down at john lee's bar
when sun went down to see 'em
someone followed her in a car

so now when she goes dancin'
she has to watch her back
the FBI just trashed her room
one of them kicked her cat

the damn thing scratched his leg
and he had to shoot it dead
and leave it lyin' in a puddle of blood
at the foot of sun green's bed

"hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too"

john lee's was rockin'
the imitators drove it home
sun was dancin' up a heatwave
for a while she was all alone...

when up walked a tall stranger
he shadowed her move to move
in perfect unison
a supernatural groove

he took her by the hand
and the room began to spin
he said, "i'm earth... earth brown
you know the shape i'm in

i'm leavin' tonight for alaska
and i want you to come in the spring
and be a goddess in the planet wars
tryin' to save the livin' things"

"i'm ready to go right now,"
sun green told earth brown
"let's go back to my place,
pick up my cat and leave this town behind"

hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too

next day sun green got busted for pot
and it made the headline news
but then the charges all got dropped
and the story got confused

she'd still like to meet julia butterfly
and see what remedy brings
and be a goddess in the planet wars
tryin' to save the livin' things

but that might not be easy
livin' on the run
mother earth has many enemies
there's much work to be done

"hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too
hey mr. clean, you're dirty now too"

I know it's not the right Neil, but it's still a Neil....

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Mighty fine lyrics. Ta!

Here's the journo version ....

http://xtramsn.co.nz/business/0,,5009-4453416,00.html

Fish Co Seeks Greenpeace Injunction
08/06/2005 07:01 PM - NewstalkZB

Nelson based company Amaltal fishing is planning to file an injunction against the environmental group Greenpeace.

This follows Greenpeace protesting against trawlers' nets in the Tasman Sea.

Amaltal director Andrew Talley claims Greenpeace cut through trawlers' nets in what he calls an act of piracy.

However Greenpeace denies it cut through the nets, and says it has been protesting peacefully without harming anyone or damaging equipment.

Greenpeace also says it was attacked by Amaltal workers, though Mr Talley says any preemptive strike was by Greenpeace, and the workers would have been defending themselves.

Mr Talley says his company is the victim of Greenpeace, which is looking for media attention.

...........................................................


And old news again ... these are not greenies, hicks, or long-haired yobbos. They're environmentalists, and should be proud of that fact!!! Understand the threat to the deep-sea environment.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Deep-sea trawling's 'great harm'

 

[Steve O'Shea]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3307499a7693,00.html

Greenpeace accused of 'piracy'
09 June 2005
By ELEANOR WILSON and NZPA

A Nelson-based fishing company says it will go to court today to seek an injunction against Greenpeace, which it accuses of high-seas "piracy".

Amaltal Fishing said it would apply for a court order to prevent activists approaching its trawler, the Ocean Reward, claiming Greenpeace was guilty of piracy by breaching maritime safety regulations and causing thousands of dollars of damage.

Amaltal director Andrew Talley said Greenpeace campaigners from the Rainbow Warrior cut Ocean Reward's net in the Tasman Sea on Tuesday with knives and gaffs.

"They are being attacked by a bunch of hairies and hippies with knives and gaffs," Talley said of his crew. "We are shocked at this attack. It's an act of piracy."

Greenpeace denied cutting the net, saying its members had been trying to stop the boat from bottom-trawling by attaching an inflatable liferaft to the net when they were shot at by fishing crew armed with compressed-air guns firing potatoes, and were sprayed with high-pressure water hoses.

Greenpeace said it continued to disrupt trawling yesterday by obstructing the vessel's trawl doors and using inflatable boats, and it claimed to have stopped four trawls.

Talley said he did not know if the Ocean Reward crew fired potatoes at the Greenpeace activists or sprayed them with hoses, but if they did they did so in self-defence.

"They are being attacked by a bunch of hairies and hippies with knives and gaffs. We are shocked at this attack. It's an act of piracy." - Amaltal Fishing director Andrew Talley

"When anyone attacks a boat on the high seas it's piracy," he said. "The crew will take any steps to defend themselves."

The Ocean Reward was seven days into a two-week fishing trip for orange roughy, 560km west of the North Island.

Although Amaltal disputed Greenpeace's argument that deep-sea trawling was damaging the ocean floor. Talley said the matter was not about "political messages", it was about the rules of seamanship being observed.

The Rainbow Warrior was still near the Ocean Reward, so to ensure there were no more problems Amaltal planned to file an injunction against the Greenpeace boat and skipper, citing a breach of maritime and safety rules, Talley said. But Greenpeace New Zealand campaigner Carmen Gravatt said from the Rainbow Warrior that activists were protesting peacefully and did not cut the nets with knives.

However, at one point an inflatable craft was unintentionally caught up in the trawler's net, and she could not rule out that the net was torn then. "We don't want to damage any of their equipment or harm their crew in any way."

AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Rainbow Warrior was staying close to the Ocean Reward, filming its practices, she said.

From Greenpeace's Auckland base, spokesman Dean Baigent-Mercer dismissed Amaltal's claims that it planned to file an injunction as "bluster".

Greenpeace is campaigning for a Government moratorium on bottom-trawling, which can involve nets the size of a rugby field and three storeys high.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

There's stuff happening out there on the high seas .....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3308156a11,00.html

Greenpeace targets trawler for second time
09 June 2005

Greenpeace activists have targeted a Nelson-based trawler for the second consecutive day, preventing it from bottom trawling in the Tasman Sea.


Amaltal fishing company, which owns the Ocean Reward deep sea trawler, says it is pushing ahead with plans to file for an injunction to stop the activists interfering with its boat.

Amaltal director Andrew Talley said the company would file for an injunction in the High Court in Auckland today because of safety concerns for the crew.

Greenpeace said it stopped four trawls by the Ocean Reward yesterday in the Tasman Sea, using its protest vessel Rainbow Warrior and inflatable boats.

The action follows a high-seas drama on Tuesday when the activists complained about being shot at with potatoes from compressed airguns and sprayed with high pressure hoses by crew of the Ocean Reward as they used a liferaft to interfere with its operation.

Mr Talley said the activists had cut the boat's net with knives and gaffs in what he described as an act of piracy.

Greenpeace oceans campaigner Carmen Gravatt said activists continued their protest action against bottom trawling yesterday, using a cable to connect the Ocean Reward's trawl doors together, choking off the net and preventing it from being deployed.

Later, it attached floating barrels to the net, forcing the vessel to haul the net back in, Ms Gravatt said.

The organisation claimed it was taking action to stop the destruction of the ocean floor because governments were failing to do so.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has backed Greenpeace's action against bottom trawling.

Maritime Union general secretary Trevor Hanson said over-fishing and bad practices such as bottom trawling were wrecking the environment, and would also destroy the industry that depended on the environment.

Mr Hanson said the fishing industry needed to be overhauled with stronger regulation and a long term strategy to overcome its problems, particularly pay and conditions for workers and the sustainability of fish stocks.

But Nelson-based Orange Roughy Management Company chief executive George Clement said today Greenpeace was overstating its case.

"If it looks like piracy and smells like piracy, let the court decide," Mr Clement said.

He said that any type of food production business changed the environment to some degree, but it was a matter of balance, and the level of impact from bottom trawling was extremely small compared to the amount of ocean. Two-thirds of New Zealand's zone was not trawled because it was too deep or closed by regulation, Mr Clement said.

He said if Greenpeace thought what the industry was doing was wrong, it should work with the industry to solve problems, not against it.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Two-thirds of New Zealand's zone was not trawled because it was too deep or closed by regulation

Dear George. You seem to be missing the point. Let me explain something to you ....

1) This is in INTERNATIONAL waters

2) I hope that you are not confusing the 'NZ Region' for the NZ EEZ again. Are you?

3) The stuff that lives on the sea floor differs according to depth and latitude. If you don't understand this rather fundamental biological principle then I suggest you come along to university and do some courses. I will ensure FREE admission for you ... I'd even consider some FREE extra-curricular coursework for you and anyone else in the industry that legitimately wanted to learn more (or perhaps wanted to learn a new career). You see, at the rate that things are going, you will all need to retrain within a decade anyway, and the vessels themselves, well, scrap; they'll be sunk and converted into new deep-sea reef to compensate for the damage that present-day fishing practices have done to homogenise the seabed substratum, eventually to be covered in life, like Rainbow Warrior 1 (such a fitting purpose for this once-proud vessel).

If you haven't the time or inclination to study further, look out a window at a mountain and note how the vegetation changes with altitude. It's the same thing with depth. It's the same thing on the intertidal platform.

Free education aside, whatever lives deeper is different, so the reality is that you are not protecting anything that occurred shallower by not trawling deeper, because it never occurred there in the first place. Sadly this statement serves only to show your lack of appreciation of and consideration for the myriad life forms for whom the clock is ticking, or those for which time has run out.

This industry practice, deep-sea bottom trawling, is NOT WORTH $1.2 billion a year - it is probably worth ~ $70 million (for Orange Roughy), and this figure is decreasing all of the time (a bit like CPUE) - poultry dollars compared to the total revenue generated by fisheries in NZ waters, including many practices that are environmentally sustainable (or at least considerably less pervasive). In reality, including recently exhausted oreo stocks, this bottom-trawling practice has annihilated most hard-ground fauna (like corals) to 1500m depth! It's also killed my squid and octopus; it is killing the whales!! Hey, I'm not too happy about that. Shame on you for prostituting the truth otherwise. Shame on you!! Shame, shame, shame! Check out the term 'megafaunal zone', or 'megafaunal discontinuity'; you'll be surprised to learn that we've known of this thing called 'zonation' for centuries ... You could probably check out the term 'biogeography' also - you could learn several things in one day and impress the dog.

4) The life (aka stuff, bottom filth, invertebrates, bycatch) that is found in or on sediments differs from that found on seamount and deep-sea reef habitat. The differences are rather obvious - a major one being that much 'stuff' that occurs on reef/seamount habitat is stuck there ... as in SESSILE ... you know, like 'anchored' or 'fixed', or 'cemented' even - it is extremely susceptible to trawling impact because it cannot escape the net. The 'stuff' that is found on soft sediments is generally MOBILE ... you know, 'not fixed' to the seabed - but it is equally susceptible to impact, in a different way. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out that concentrating >70% of your fishing effort within one habitat (seamounts and deep-sea reef) that comprises

 

[Steve O'Shea]

The latest release; yet to be picked up by the press.

Amaltal Miss the Boat with Dodgy Legal Tactics

Thursday, 9 June 2005: After two successful days disrupting destructive bottom trawling, the Rainbow Warrior has headed off to find bottom trawlers from other nations, including Australia. The Rainbow Warrior had already steamed away from the Ocean Reward on its mission when Greenpeace received notice that Amaltal was going to apply for an injunction.

"The fact that companies like Amaltal are allowed to continue destroying our global marine heritage and wipe undiscovered species off the face of the planet, is completely outrageous. This highlights the urgent need for the international community to take action to protect deep sea life so that we don't have to," said Greenpeace campaigner, Carmen Gravatt.

"New Zealand is not the only country involved in bottom trawling in international waters. We are now taking the Rainbow Warrior further out into the high seas to look for other vessels to show the world the range of countries involved in deep sea destruction. The New Zealand vessel, the Ocean Reward, is fishing in an area where there is no fisheries management agreements in place and where we know that New Zealand-flagged vessels have in the past fished alongside vessel under flags of convenience," said Gravatt.

Meanwhile, fishing industry voices attempted to defend the world's most destructive fishing practise by claiming innocence for their weighted bottom trawl nets, saying they had little impact.

"The industry is being dishonest in its defence of bottom trawling. Bottom trawling is now considered by marine scientists to be the biggest threat to deep sea biodiversity and the UN last year called on States to take urgent action to address the impacts of destructive fishing such as bottom trawling."

In January this year the report of the Millennium Project's Task Force on Environmental Sustainability * a UN Advisory group looking at how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals - recommends that "global fisheries authorities must agree to eliminate bottom trawling on the high seas by 2006 to protect seamounts and other ecologically sensitive habitats and to eliminate bottom trawling globally by 2010.

Right now the UN is discussing how to manage the world's oceans at a meeting in New York, and it is at this global level that we need action.

"The writing is on the wall, the science is leading the charge and grabbing at legal tactics will not change the fact that the days of high seas bottom trawling are numbered", concluded Gravatt.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Please forward it on

Greenpeace Aotearoa - Greenpeace Aotearoa

 

[Steve O'Shea]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10330040

Activists head for foreign trawlers

10.06.05 1.00pm

Greenpeace activists harassing a Nelson trawler in the Tasman Sea have now sailed on to target foreign trawlers.

The protest ship Rainbow Warrior has sailed away from Amaltal's deep sea trawler Ocean Reward, to hunt for more bottom trawlers from other countries, Greenpeace says.

Nelson-based Amaltal filed for an injunction in the High Court in Auckland yesterday, after two days of high seas drama with Greenpeace activists earlier this week.

The company sought an injunction to prevent Greenpeace from interfering with the Ocean Reward's operation.

The campaigners had been tampering with the boat's nets to stop it trawling for orange roughy in international waters of the Tasman Sea, about 500km off the coast of New Zealand, protesting that the fishing method was destroying biodiversity on the ocean floor.

The High Court in Auckland will make a decision next week.

Greenpeace said Rainbow Warrior had already steamed away from Ocean Reward when it received notice yesterday that Amaltal was applying for an injunction.

"New Zealand is not the only country involved in bottom trawling in international waters," said Greenpeace campaigner Carmen Gravatt.

"We are now taking the Rainbow Warrior further out into the high seas to look for other vessels to show the world the range of countries involved in deep sea destruction."

Amaltal director Andrew Talley was not available this morning to comment on whether the company would push ahead seeking an injunction now that the Greenpeace activists had sailed away from its boat.

The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council said the Greenpeace "assault" on Ocean Reward was "dangerous and disgraceful".

Council chief executive Owen Symmans said the fishing techniques used by the New Zealand industry minimised impact on the biodiversity of the ocean bottom.

He said boats fly trawl gear above the sea bottom to target fish, rather than dragging heavy trawl gear across the floor.

Greenpeace has dismissed the fishing industry's defence of bottom trawling, saying it was being dishonest with its claims.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

It's only fair that both sides of the story are presented:
Greenpeace assault on a New Zealand fishing vessel

Greenpeace assault on a New Zealand fishing vessel
Thursday, 9 June 2005, 12:38 pm
Press Release: Seafood Industry Council
9 June 2005

“Greenpeace’s assault on a New Zealand fishing vessel this week in the Tasman was dangerous and disgraceful. It is entirely appropriate that the Government considers what action it can take to protect New Zealanders legally going about their business wherever they are,” says New Zealand Seafood Industry Council chief executive Owen Symmans.

“The facts are the fishing techniques utilized by the New Zealand industry minimises impact on the biodiversity of the ocean bottom where fishing takes place. New Zealand fishers simply do not drag heavy trawl gear across pristine sea floor as suggested. Technology allows boats to ‘fly’ trawl gear above the sea bottom to target the fish, with little impact on the sea floor or organisms that live on the bottom. Fishing only occurs in a very small area of ocean, which has generally been fished for many years. Much of the area cannot be fished because of the size, slope and structure of the sea floor.

“New Zealand fishing companies operate within the most effective sustainable fishing management system in the world. Indeed Greenpeace themselves identified New Zealand bottom trawlers as ‘good operators’1 in a March 2005 case study.

“Clearly it is in the best interests of the fishing industry to protect the ocean habitat because that is the best way of ensuring there will be fish to catch. The New Zealand seafood industry invests heavily in research and technology to minimise the impact of bottom trawling with significant success and this investment will continue into the future,” says Mr Symmans.
The claim New Zealand fish stocks are at risk is misleading, said Mr Symmans. Independent assessments contracted by the Ministry of Fisheries to instruct the Minister when making decisions about how much fish can be caught show this is not the case, he said.

ENDS

August 04 Background Information

Bottom Trawling in the New Zealand EEZ and in the High Seas

NZ EEZ

Trawling is by far the most common fishing method used to catch fin fish in the New Zealand EEZ.


With the exception of bottom long lining, trawling is the only method used by New Zealand fishing operators to catch deep water fish species in the high seas.

Scallops, oysters and scampi are also harvested using dredging or trawling.

SeaFIC estimates that over $800 million of the $1.2 billion earned from seafood exports in 2003 was from species caught by trawling and related bottom methods. This is similar to global fisheries statistics. Globally, about 70% of fish and shellfish production comes from trawl fishing.

Most of the 26,000 jobs that the seafood industry has created in New Zealand relate directly or indirectly to trawl fishing. The only exceptions are for people employed in aquaculture, longline fishing and rock lobster and paua harvesting.

New Zealand fisheries are managed sustainably through the Quota Management System. This ensures that catch limits are set to ensure long term sustainability and provide strong incentives for quota holders to fish responsibly.

More than 65% of the New Zealand EEZ cannot be fished by trawling, because areas are closed to trawling, the water is too deep or there are no fish present of commercial interest.

The remaining 35% available for trawling is only fished where the sea bottom terrain is suitable and where fish can be located. Fishing therefore takes place only in selected areas. Fishers generally fish in similar areas each year which means that new areas are not being damaged.


High Seas

Outside the EEZ in the high seas, trawling for deep water species can only take place in a very small area of suitable terrain at depths between 800 to 1200 metres.

Globally and in New Zealand, most bottom trawl fishing takes place on a flat or undulating sea bottom generally covered in muddy sediment. This is generally not a suitable habitat for corals. Trawling in these areas will come into contact with and disturb the bottom sediments. However the ecosystem impact is minimal.

Deep water trawling for species like orange roughy takes place on undersea slopes, mounds and seamounts. The terrain is sometimes rocky and can be a habitat for cold water corals. New Zealand deepwater fishers have modified their fishing techniques to minimise contact with slope surfaces. This lessens the impact on both the sea floor and fishing gear.

Trawl gear cannot be deployed on slopes of greater than 20 degrees. Much of the deepwater slope and seamount terrain cannot be fished as it is too steep, thus avoiding any chance of contact with corals. More of the deepwater slopes and seamount terrain is not fished than is fished.

Deepwater species like orange roughy commonly aggregate in plumes above slopes. Fishers will bring fishing gear down on such aggregations in a broad arc, and thus minimize the period where gear might come into contact with the sea floor.

It is a complete misrepresentation of deep water trawling for orange roughy to assert that it is conducted by rolling and crushing trawl gear indiscriminately across the sea floor.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

However, it is also important that the lies perpetuated by this industry are not believed!!

Two images, trawled and untrawled, NZ seamounts. Must be some very special gear that they use - feather dusters on the ground rope to cause so little damage. See if you can spot the difference between the two, because Owen Symmans cannot.

Also, excerpt from the following paper:
Koslow, J.A.; Gowlett-Holmes, K.; Lowry, J,K.; O'Hara, T.; Poore, G.C.B.; Williams, A. 2001. Seamount benthic macrofauna off southern Tasmania: community structure and impacts of trawling. Marine Ecology Progress Series 213: 111–125.

INTRO
Although concerns about the direct and indirect impacts of trawling on seafloor habitats and demersal fish communities can be traced back to the 14th century (de Groot 1984), trawling effort and its impacts have expanded enormously over the past hundred years. A rapidly growing literature has shown that trawling may substantially alter marine benthic habitats and communities (Bradstock & Gordon 1983, de Groot 1984, Sainsbury 1988, Hutchings 1990, Jones 1992, Dayton et al. 1995, Auster et al. 1996, Collie et al. 1997). Several studies have also demonstrated significant secondary, or indirect, impacts on elements of the community, such as juvenile or adult fishes, that utilize biogenic structures on the seafloor directly impacted by trawling (Bradstock & Gordon 1983, Sainsbury 1988). These latter studies both led to areal closures to trawling.

Trawl fishing has not only intensified, it has also expanded into a range of hard rocky and reefal environments not previously accessible to this gear, based on the development of strong synthetic net fibres, rockhopper gear—large rubber bobbins and metal discs along the footrope—and precise electronic positioning systems both for the vessel and to monitor net performance. Seamounts are one such environment to become subject to intensive trawl fishing in recent
decades.