Greenpeace activists disrupt
the setting of a bottom trawl net by attaching
an inflatable liferaft. The bottom trawl vessel
is the 'Ocean Reward' owned by New Zealand
company Talley's Fisheries.
07/06/2005 — Activists in New Zealand have
taken action against a vessel using the most
destructive fishing method in the world, bottom
trawling. Dodging whole potatoes fired from
compressed air guns, and high pressure fire
hoses, the activists prevented the New Zealand
vessel Ocean Reward from destroying deep-sea
life.
Using the Rainbow Warrior and inflatable boats,
Greenpeace activists disrupted the Ocean Reward
from destroying deep sea coral forests that
take hundreds of years to grow. The vessel
was bottom trawling in international waters
of the Tasman Sea.
Our activists delayed the vessel from deploying
its net by attaching an inflatable life-raft
(and dodging potatoes, yes, potatoes, fired
by angry trawlermen.)
Our oceans campaigner in New Zealand, Carmen
Gravatt, said from onboard the Rainbow Warrior,
"This type of fishing is considered by
scientists to be the greatest threat to deep
sea biodiversity and every trawl does incredible
damage.
Bottom trawling nets are dragged along the
sea floor. Huge chains or rollers attached
to the front of the nets destroy everything
in their path, including coral forests, as
well as sponges, worm tubes, mussels, boulder
fields, and rocky reefs. Many species of non-target
fish and other deep sea creatures are unintentionally
caught as well. Then they are dumped - dead
or dying - over the side.
Last year we documented bottom trawlers hauling
up sea stars, rocks and even endangered black
coral, despite fishing industry claims that
their bottom trawling vessels did not touch
the seafloor. (We are pretty sure that those
rocks weren't floating, guys.)
This week the sixth meeting of the impressively-titled
United Nations Informal Consultation on Oceans
and the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) gets underway
at the UN in New York. The focus of the meeting
is on sustainable fisheries and it is expected
that the demand for a UN moratorium on high
seas bottom trawling will again be on the
table for discussion - and if not, we intend
to put it there. There is a growing number
of countries that are moving to support this
as the only responsible action to provide
immediate protection for deep sea biodiversity.
