Ban bottom trawling
New Zealand is the last country still bottom trawling in the international waters of the Tasman Sea. This has to stop.
Bottom trawling is devastating the oceans
Heavy weighted nets scrape the seafloor bare, smashing through ancient coral forests and delicate ecosystems. They leave behind barren wastelands.
Dolphins, seals, sharks and seabirds are caught and killed in trawl nets. Labelled as “bycatch”, they too are victims of bottom trawling.
Put simply, the cost of industrial bottom trawling is too high.
If we don’t act now, entire species could be lost forever
Greenpeace is taking action to defend nature and calling for bottom trawling to be banned.
We’re pushing to get bottom trawling banned in the habitats it causes the most damage – vulnerable areas like the Hauraki Gulf and the delicate ecosystems that exist on seamounts.
You too can join the fight to protect the oceans. Donate today and join us in taking action to defend nature.
Greenpeace is calling for a ban on bottom trawling
Greenpeace has been campaigning to protect the oceans for decades. Through research, science, action and people power, we will continue to protect the great blue oceans and all the wildlife that call it home.
In March this year, we set sail to the High Seas of the Tasman on an expedition to document the South Pacific seamounts, and survey the marine life living there. We recorded the beauty of thriving underwater communities but also vast graveyards of destroyed and dead coral along known trawl tracks – reduced to rubble by bottom trawlers. It’s evidence that bottom trawling is destroying the deep sea coral of the Tasman Sea.
We carried out this research to help make the case for the protection of this special place, to show the life that needs saving, as well as gather proof of what happens when trawling is allowed to happen on deep sea coral habitats.
But this area can be protected with the Global Oceans Treaty finally coming into effect in 2026, we have the historic opportunity to preserve this amazing place for the future. The Tasman Sea is already being considered as a priority site for one of the world’s first global ocean sanctuaries, but New Zealand’s bottom trawling needs to stop for this to become a reality.
With your support, we will continue defending nature, and protect these precious marine habitats.
