August 11, 2023
Social licence for Hauraki Gulf trawling lost
A Forest & Bird campaigner says the latest steps to protect Tikapa Moana are a good start – but ending bottom trawling needs to be a bottom line.
The Government has announced legislation to extend existing marine reserves in the Hauraki Gulf at Goat Island and Cathedral Cove and create new classes of protection areas, including five new sea-floor protection areas where activities like trawling are banned.
Bianca Ranson says reading the fine print, it’s clear only 6 percent of the gulf will get high protection status.
She says bottom trawling is like driving a bull-dozer through a national park, destroying the habitats and ecosystems needed for biodiversity recovery.
“Social licence has completely been lost in terms of any kind of destructive fishing methods in the gulf so what we’re seeing is a continuation of government listening to industry over the wellbeing of the ocean and what the ocean needs to recover and thrive again,” she says.
Ms Ranson says the Government needs to heed a 37,000-signature petition to ban bottom trawling which is still to go before a select committee.
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