Source: NZ Herald
Leading environmental organisations and recreational fishers have joined forces to call on the government to restrict bottom trawling.
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), Forest & Bird, Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO) of New Zealand, Greenpeace, LegaSea and WWF-New Zealand are urging the public to sign a petition calling on the Minister of Fisheries, Stuart Nash, and the Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage, to ban bottom trawling on seamounts and other ecologically sensitive areas.
The groups agree argue that New Zealand’s “antiquated” legislation on bottom trawling lags behind the rest of the world, Greenpeace oceans campaigner Jessica Desmond describing it as one of the most brutal and devastating forms of fishing that destroys entire underwater ecosystems.
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