Members of the Hauraki Gulf Alliance have deployed a massive ‘Ban Bottom Trawling’ banner on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior, demanding an end to destructive bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The Alliance, which includes Forest & Bird, LegaSea and Greenpeace, has a long-running campaign to remove trawling from Hauraki Gulf and the renewed call comes as bottom trawling faces increased public scrutiny.

Speaking from the Rainbow Warrior, in the Gulf, "Heal the Hauraki" documentary producer Mandy Kupenga says: "For too long, the practice of bottom trawling has bulldozed the rich and fragile ecosystems beneath the surface of the Hauraki Gulf. Entire ocean communities have been devastated. What happens beneath the waves doesn’t stay there-when we lose biodiversity in the sea, we lose part of what sustains life on land as well.

"We cannot continue turning a blind eye. It’s time to restore the mauri-the life force-of the Gulf, and honour our responsibility to future generations. Ending bottom trawling in and around the Hauraki Gulf isn’t just a conservation decision. It’s a moral one."

Gulf advocate Shaun Lee says the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries "needs to listen to 97.2% of 8,909 submitters who have asked for a full ban on bottom impact fishing in the Gulf". LegaSea spokesperson Benn Winlove says he is disappointed the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries is willing to ignore such strong public sentiment against bottom trawling.

"Public opposition to environmental destruction is growing and it’s incredible that a Minister in charge of ensuring sustainability of fish populations and their habitat is willing to let bottom trawling continue in the Gulf, let alone in the Marine Park."

Bianca Ranson, campaigner from Forest & Bird, says:

"97% of submitters have called for a complete ban of bottom impact fishing in the Hauraki Gulf yet the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Shane Jones, mocks Tīkapa Moana calling it ‘just a mud-stained bottom’. That is an insult to every living thing that depends on this ocean and to future generations who deserve thriving ecosystems abundant with life. Trawling rips up the seafloor turning vibrant thriving ecosystems into lifeless mud. Every year, massive weighted nets are dragged across the seafloor of Tīkapa Moana, killing all life in its path, destroying nurseries for fish, and choking the seabed in suffocating plumes of sedimentation. It's time to end bottom trawling."

Bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves dragging heavy nets over the seafloor to catch fish, stirring up sediment, releasing carbon and indiscriminately killing marine life.

This is not the first time the massive banner has been used. Hundreds of people turned out to a flotilla in Auckland in 2023 to call for an end to trawling in the Gulf, while that same year a petition calling for a ban signed by nearly 37,000 people was handed into parliament.

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