You Are Here:
Nelson 30-July-2006: Two Greenpeace activists aboard Belize flagged Chinese bottom trawler Chang Xing in Port of Nelson, New Zealand. The two activists along with one other attached to the mooring line stopped the vessel from leaving port.
magnify imageEnormous bottom trawl nets are dragged along the sea floor, catching all marine life and killing all habitats - they swallow and destroy everything in their path.
Greenpeace wants to protect ocean habitats, sealife and fish stocks from this indiscriminate fishing method.
The global threat of bottom trawling to deep-sea life in international waters needs an international solution.
That's why Greenpeace and a coalition of other environmental groups have been working to convince the United Nations that a moratorium is urgently needed.
A moratorium on high seas bottom trawling would immediately halt the bottom trawling in these sensitive areas and allow time for scientists to study the deep-sea life.
Scientists would report to the United Nations and advise which deep-sea areas need permanent protection and which may be able to be fished.
It would also allow time for world leaders to put in place longer term legal measures.
At the moment, bottom trawlers are plundering seamounts and wiping out the unknown worlds of the deep-sea before new species are even known to exist.
In the campaign to halt bottom trawling on the high seas Greenpeace went on two expeditions to the high seas in 2004 - one in the Tasman Sea with the Rainbow Warrior and one in the North Atlantic with the Esperanza.
Both expeditions published weblogs: Tasman Sea Weblog (2005) and North Atlantic Weblog (2004)
Greenpeace wants to protect ocean habitats, sealife and fish stocks from this indiscriminate fishing method.
Moratorium wanted
The global threat of bottom trawling to deep-sea life in international waters needs an international solution.
That's why Greenpeace and a coalition of other environmental groups have been working to convince the United Nations that a moratorium is urgently needed.
A moratorium on high seas bottom trawling would immediately halt the bottom trawling in these sensitive areas and allow time for scientists to study the deep-sea life.
Scientists would report to the United Nations and advise which deep-sea areas need permanent protection and which may be able to be fished.
It would also allow time for world leaders to put in place longer term legal measures.
At the moment, bottom trawlers are plundering seamounts and wiping out the unknown worlds of the deep-sea before new species are even known to exist.
Greenpeace expeditions
In the campaign to halt bottom trawling on the high seas Greenpeace went on two expeditions to the high seas in 2004 - one in the Tasman Sea with the Rainbow Warrior and one in the North Atlantic with the Esperanza.
Both expeditions published weblogs: Tasman Sea Weblog (2005) and North Atlantic Weblog (2004)
