Listen Now: 
Download AudioForest & Bird’s Hauraki Gulf coordinator says the Government seems to have gone cold on promises in the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari marine spatial plan to end trawling.
Bianca Ranson organised a protest last week against bottom trawling in the Auckland Harbour.
She says it looks like the fishing industry has got the government to ease back on protection.
“The well-being of the Hauraki Gulf should be an election issue, and we’re certainly turning it into one. Because the Sea Change – Revitalising the Gulf Plan – there’s 19 protection zones that need to be set in place. Trawling needs to go. We’ve seen the impacts of over-fishing and the other pressures that are being put on the gulf,” Ms Ranson says.
She says unless urgent and drastic steps are taken, the Hauraki Gulf will suffer a catastrophic collapse of biodiversity.
RELATED NEWS
