A decision to dramatically reduce catch limits in the world\u2019s largest orange roughy fishery is being welcomed by environmental groups, while they assert further protection is needed to prevent habitat and population collapse.<\/p>\n\n
The Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Shane Jones announced today that catch limits in the Chatham Rise, New Zealand\u2019s most important orange roughy fishing ground, will be slashed in half to 2,349 tonnes. In the 1980s the Chatham Rise fishery saw catch numbers of approximately 28,000 – 33,000 tonnes annually.<\/p>\n\n
In one fishing ground known as the East and South Chatham Rise, the orange roughy population has crashed to around 10% of its original size. Jones has decided on a catch cut of 88% for this zone.<\/p>\n\n
Jones also announced new \u201cspatial and temporal closures\u201d of spawning areas to allow orange roughy numbers to rebuild.<\/p>\n\n
Environmentalists have been campaigning to close orange roughy spawning grounds – seamounts and similar features- to bottom trawling for decades, due to the importance of these areas for fish numbers and as the home of ancient deep sea corals.<\/p>\n\n
Karli Thomas, campaign coordinator with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, says: \u201cBottom trawling is a highly destructive fishing method that has decimated roughy numbers in the past and continues to destroy the habitats they depend on, notably seamounts or underwater mountains which are home to vibrant ancient coral forests.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m pleased to see the Minister\u2019s decision finally acknowledge that seamounts and features – places orange roughy go to breed – need protection, something that\u2019s written right into the Fisheries Act but has been ignored for too long.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe need to treat the ocean as the complex ecosystem it is – which is why we\u2019ve been calling for an end to bottom trawling on seamounts for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace oceans campaigner Juan Parada says today\u2019s decision acknowledges the concerns of the 100,000 people who have petitioned the government calling for bottom trawling to stop on seamounts, but says that still more needs to be done.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cCatch cuts and closures are a welcome step in the right direction, but all seamounts need to be permanently protected from bottom trawling for both roughy and the deep sea coral habitats they rely on.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s management of orange roughy bottom trawl fisheries over the past 30 years has been like watching a slow-motion train wreck. It\u2019s history repeating itself, and it will continue to repeat unless these vital seamount habitats are protected.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe fishing industry has proven it can\u2019t be trusted to act with ocean health in mind. They\u2019ve collapsed orange roughy before, and now it looks like they\u2019ve done it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
All of New Zealand\u2019s orange roughy fisheries were red listed by Monterey Bay Aquarium\u2019s Seafood Watch programme earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe are squandering our international reputation by exporting fish trawled off seamounts with tonnes of coral bycatch as collateral damage, and calling it \u201csustainable\u201d. It won\u2019t wash with our export markets, but more importantly, New Zealanders expect better\u201d says Thomas.<\/p>\n\n
In June Greenpeace activists confronted two bottom trawlers on the Chatham Rise painting \u201cOCEAN KILLER\u201d on the hull of Sealord\u2019s Ocean Dawn and Talley\u2019s Amaltal Atlantis in protest of the destruction caused by bottom trawling.<\/p>\n\n
The DSCC and Greenpeace are calling for all seamounts within the waters of Aotearoa and the South Pacific to be closed to bottom trawling.<\/p>\n\t\t\t At home and far out to sea, our oceans are being plundered for profit by the fishing industry through bottom trawling. But what is bottom trawling and why is it so destructive to ocean habitats?<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t A decision to dramatically reduce catch limits in the world\u2019s largest orange roughy fishery is being welcomed by environmental groups, while they assert further protection is needed to prevent habitat and population collapse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":61111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25,44],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-74055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-oceans","tag-fishing","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n