Responses vary: MPI and DOC acknowledge the damage, the EDS backs all three asks, and Seafood New Zealand opposes them.
The Committee will now weigh these before deciding next steps.
The Live Ocean petition calling for an end to bottom trawling, backed by 73,647 people, is moving through the Parliamentary Petitions Committee. It’s a process that could take up to a year.
To recap – the petition was formally submitted and read in Parliament on 29 April this year. Live Ocean made a further written submission on 10 June in support of the petition, together with Jono Ridler, outlining in more detail the case for change. You can read it here.
The Petitions Committee has been seeking views from a range of groups, including industry, fishers, environmental organisations and government agencies.
A joint submission from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Department of Conservation (DOC) was published on 10 August. Importantly, it acknowledges the damage bottom trawling can cause to vulnerable marine ecosystems like seamounts, while also highlighting industry’s current dependence on this fishing method, the legislative change required and the need to consider the impacts of change on fisheries and the economy.
You can read the joint MPI and DOC response here.
The EDS backed all three of the petition’s asks in full and goes further, asking for a freeze on the ‘trawl footprint’ so no untouched areas can be trawled. EDS also outlines the scale of the problem, flags how slow recovery is, and points out that the most targeted bottom trawl species – orange roughy – is in population collapse. EDS also reiterates that New Zealand is the only country still trawling seamounts in the South Pacific, putting us increasingly out of step internationally.
You can read the EDS response here.
The NZ Sport Fishing Council (NZSFC) and their public advocacy arm Legasea submitted jointly, saying they back the petition’s direction and broadly support the petition’s first two asks. Their response focusses more heavily on the petition’s third ask for Government to support the industry to transition away from bottom trawling. They’ve lodged an OIA request with MPI and want the Petition Committee to press the Minister on whether MPI or Fisheries NZ has done any economic assessment of the costs/benefits, regulatory impact and funding for an industry transition away from bottom trawling.
You can read the NZ Sport Fishing Council Response here.
Seafood New Zealand (SNZ) opposes all three of the petition’s requests – a markedly different read of the evidence to the one driving Live Ocean’s campaign. They argue the evidence doesn’t show bottom trawling is causing damage serious enough to justify the changes sought, and point to existing spatial protections, monitoring and independent sustainability certification already in place. They also note that bottom trawling supplies around 70% of New Zealand’s annual seafood catch and raise Treaty of Waitangi considerations given the scale of Māori-owned deepwater quota.
You can read the Seafood NZ response here.
There’s still a way to go. The Committee will consider the different perspectives it receives before deciding its next steps, and the process could take up to a year.
We’ll keep following it closely and keep you updated.
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