Originally published in The Adventurer, May 2024.
The soothing sounds of squawking seagulls and crashing waves are being drowned out by the roar of bottom trawlers along the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty coastline. This is where trawlers have sadly become a common sight to see from the comfort of your own beach. They often come eerily close to the shoreline.
Regulations in the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel allow inshore trawlers to operate just 2 nautical miles from our shoreline, equivalent to 3.7 kilometres.
Although it may be lawful for them to come in this close, those laws were set years ago. Now we know more, there is no justification ecologically or ethically.
Even if you’re not familiar with bottom trawling, you have likely heard from your fisho friends or neighbours about its destructive nature, destroying our precious ecosystems as weighted nets are dragged along the seafloor.
Such destructive methods don’t have a place in our inshore fisheries, or in our waters full stop.
Officials have recently bungled the 2017 Sea Change plan which sought to phase out bottom trawling from the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park by 2025. And although we would like to think of the Hauraki Gulf as ‘just another Auckland’ problem, the Marine Park includes the Coromandel, Whangamata, and extends down to Waihi.
Instead of phasing out trawling, Fisheries NZ’s proposed solution is to establish trawl corridors in the Marine Park. These will allow trawling to continue in large defined areas that in no way resemble a corridor. Of particular concern is a potentially large corridor extending from Whitianga all the way to the Park’s boundary at Waihi.
The position of this corridor is no accident. Fishers who choose not to fish in the Coromandel corridor will simply trawl in the open areas of the Bay of Plenty.
So, even if you don’t live in the Hauraki Gulf, your once peaceful days at the beach could be disrupted as the trawl corridors shift trawlers into your coastal waters.
Is there anything that officials could do to avoid displacement of trawling effort into other areas?
LegaSea has worked with our New Zealand Sport Fishing Council fisheries team, NZ Angling & Casting and other organisations for years to advocate for a designated, separate fisheries management area for the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The benefits include specific catch limits for fish within and outside the Marine Park. Trawlers would then need to ensure they have catching rights before moving further down the coast to fish.
However, this solution still doesn’t stop trawlers from coming in close to our beaches. A separate consultation process is needed to address this issue. It’s not acceptable that important nursery areas are being trashed by trawlers.
In fact, a research study showed that seven of the highest-ranking threats to New Zealand marine habitats relate to human activity. Bottom trawling ranked as the third equal highest threat to marine habitats (alongside invasive species).
The alternative to these methods is to use more selective fishing techniques, landing fresh, high quality catch to local ports while reducing impacts on the environment.
After spending four days at the recent New Zealand Hutchwilco Boatshow, it’s clear the public is fed up. It’s time to get trawlers out of our inshore waters.
Let your local MP or Council know how you feel about trawlers encroaching on your local beaches. And if you’re ever in doubt of a trawler coming closer than 2 nautical miles, call 0800 4 POACHER (0800 47 62 24).
