A year on from our voyage, we’re excited to finally share some of our findings from our Seamount Expedition.
This time last year – we were out exploring the secrets of the deep in the high seas between Aotearoa and Australia. Using deep sea cameras we documented the damage caused to these vital ecosystems by bottom trawlers – that turn once thriving coral forests into rubble.
We also documented the life that thrives there. A year on from our voyage, we can share our findings from a seamount we surveyed.
Watch here:
Scientists catalogued 350 corals, sponges and other deep sea lifeforms from just a tiny fraction of this seamount. Many of these corals are over a 100 years old and some are nearly 2 meters high.
Read about here in the New Zealand Herald.
The scientific discovery has proven for the first time that the Lord Howe Rise seamount is a vulnerable marine ecosystem.
This is important because this new definition should protect it from destructive bottom trawling – according to international rules intended to protect these fragile habitats – where New Zealand is the last country still bottom trawling.
Call on the Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to create new global ocean sanctuaries and protect our blue planet.
Sign the petition
