Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton informed that an accidental catch of deepwater coral happened in December last year when a New Zealand commercial fishing vessel caught a large amount of deepwater coral while bottom trawling for orange roughly over seamounts near the Chatham Islands. He added that the incident was very much disappointing.
He said that the incident was unfortunate as no fisher wants to catch deepwater coral. Now the government is working with the fishing industry to understand what happened and how it can be avoided in the future, says Anderton. It is fact that the bottom trawling does have an impact on the seabed environment and the government is working hard to manage that impact, including closing areas to protect the coral from further damage.
In 2007 the government has closed 1.2 million square kilometers of the New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone for bottom trawling. Currently the Ministry of Fisheries is pondering over the Benthic Impacts Strategy, which will provide the framework for the government to assess whether any further areas need to be closed to bottom trawling.
Anderton added that the government is also taking a lead internationally to manage bottom trawling in the high seas by closely working with other countries. The government is also thinking about the setting up the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), which introduced measures to control bottom trawling and manage its impact on the seabed in high seas areas of the south pacific.
