April 22, 2022
Seamount plan saviour or cynical
Nelson-based fishing company Sealord is proposing a plant to lock up 89 per cent of known seamounts in New Zealand’s exclusive economy.
Chief executive Doug Paulin says trawling has damaged 15 seamounts, but fish still congregate there and deepwater fishers continue to trawl along historic tracks.
That leaves another 127 known seamounts over 1000 metres which under Sealord’s Seamounts Count plan will remain pristine and untouched in perpetuity.
He says locking up all seamounts, as some conservation groups are pushing for, will result in no significant ecosystem improvement and no growth in fish numbers.
Seamounts are volcanic features that rise from the seafloor and support an abundant range of marine life.
Environment and conservation groups says it’s a cynical move by Sealord ahead of next week’s meeting of the government’s new benthic forum which was set up to discuss ways to protect the seabed from activities such as bottom trawling.