Greenpeace is welcoming the release of David Attenborough’s latest documentary Ocean, which shines a spotlight on the scale of bottom trawling destruction, and issues an urgent message to turn the tide.

The veteran broadcaster’s latest documentary turns its attention to the brutal realities of industrial fishing, and the damage it's doing to the global oceans. With never before seen footage of trawling across the seabed, Attenborough attests:

"The idea of bulldozing a rainforest causes outrage, yet we do the same underwater every day.

"Surely you would argue it must be illegal."

Greenpeace Aotearoa and allies have been campaigning for decades to restrict this damaging fishing practice from where it does the most harm, but has faced continuous pushback from the NZ industry and a lack of ambition from successive governments.

In the high seas of the South Pacific, New Zealand is the last country to be bottom trawling, and has blocked protections for vulnerable habitats from this method.

Oceans campaigner Ellie Hooper says the writing is on the wall when it comes to bottom trawling, with the majority of New Zealanders supporting the method being banned on seamounts and similar features.

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"Despite the NZ fishing industry’s desperate attempts to greenwash itself and claim their activities are sustainable, there is no such thing as sustainable bottom trawling, especially when it happens on sensitive habitats.

"Bottom trawling is destructive by nature. Dragging heavy nets across the seabed destroys coral and sponge habitats on seamount areas, and releases carbon stored in the seabed. It has huge biodiversity and climate impacts. This destructive method also catches and kills huge numbers of non-target species, with anything from dolphins, fur seals and seabirds becoming collateral damage."

A government report released in 2023 showed that 99% of coral bycatch was attributed to bottom trawling methods over a thirteen year period - 200 tonnes of it having been observed coming up in nets.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg," says Hooper, "given that most of the coral destroyed by trawlers does not come up in the net."

"Many fish stocks in New Zealand are also data deficient, meaning we actually don’t know how they’re doing. Signs from some orange roughy populations that have been assessed in recent years do not paint a good picture. They’re showing signs of decline, and breeding groups of fish have disappeared from where they once were."

The place where they were deemed to be doing better was on a seamount that has been closed to bottom trawling for years.

"In the middle of an ocean and biodiversity crisis, bottom trawling is too destructive to continue. The industry can try to split the issue any way they want - but the writing is on the wall. And the footage from this documentary really says it all."

At the end of Ocean, Attenborough encourages world leaders to propose global ocean sanctuaries at the UN Ocean Conference in June.

These sanctuaries, made possible under the hard-won Global Ocean Treaty, would be a critical part of protecting the world’s oceans, including in the Tasman Sea.

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