New Zealand bottom trawling
February 20th, 2006 by Fishing admin
New Zealand Fishing industry ‘proactive’ in bottom trawling move .The agreement to close off part of the seabed to bottom trawling signals a new era in how the fishing industry deals with environmental concerns.
Previously the industry had reacted to the claims of environmentalists, now it would focus on being proactive, said Eric Barratt, managing director of Sanford and spokesman for the deep-water trawling companies.
“We’re trying to get in front of the game instead of behind the game.”
Public reaction to the move had been positive, he said. “We need to show that we do want to behave responsibly and we’re not out there to destroy the marine environment.”
The deal is the largest proposed protection of the marine environment within any country’s exclusive economic zone. The area is four times the size of New Zealand’s land area and bigger than the entire EEZ of countries such as Argentina, Britain and Norway. It covers about 31 per cent of New Zealand’s EEZ.
Mr Barratt said the areas singled out represented a cross-section of the different marine environments present in New Zealand’s territorial waters.
“In many ways fishermen and environmentalists are of the same vein. Fishermen don’t want to catch all the fish today and have none tomorrow.”
However, it does not necessarily signal a thaw in the relationship between the environmental lobby and the industry. Mr Barratt is still critical about “the misinformation around bottom trawling and its effects”.
Greenpeace has given a cautious welcome to the deal but says it needs to go further, pushing for a total ban.
Not enough research had been done into the effects of bottom trawling, and a moratorium should be declared till the work was done, spokeswoman Carmen Gravatt said.
Mr Barratt said this amounted to stopping fishing, something the industry was not prepared to consider.
The deal will have a minimal effect on the industry, with less than 1 per cent of the area closed having been trawled previously. Bottom trawling uses large nets and rollers which contact the sea floor and sweep up a wide variety of marine life.
“It doesn’t close where we do fish, but it does close where we haven’t and, in some cases, where we’d like to,” Mr Barratt said.
Sanford, along with Sealord and Talley’s, account for the bulk of the deep-water trawling quota. The rest is held by owner-operators.
Virtually all have pledged their support, Mr Barratt said. This brought the benefit of some longer-term certainty to fishermen.
The agreement is in Government hands and is expected to become law this year.
By ADRIAN BATHGATE