Deep divisions over Sealord’s seamount protection plan

Nelson-based fishing company Sealord is proposing that a larger number of New Zealand’s underwater seamounts be placed into protection, but conservationists say it is a ploy to continue a destructive fishing practice.

Sealord’s plan, dubbed Seamounts Count, involves placing 89% of known seamounts in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) into conservation.

It says that under the proposal, at least 127 of the 142 known seamounts will be protected within a conservation envelope. But conservation groups have dismissed the plan, disputing the number of seamounts in New Zealand waters and say bottom trawling of all of them must stop.

The issue of fishing around seamounts, or underwater mountains, is currently before Parliament’s environment select committee.

In August, the committee heard from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition about the destructive impact of bottom trawling in New Zealand waters. It submitted a 52,000-signature petition calling for a ban on the practice on seamounts and similar deep-sea features.

Conservation groups argue that trawling destroys delicate ecosystems that thrive on seamounts.

However, Sealord chief executive Doug Paulin said a ban wasn’t necessary. ‘‘It is possible to achieve a balance, to conserve the marine environment and continue fishing a very small number of seamounts,’’ he said.

‘‘This breakthrough proposal strikes a balance heavily in favour of conserving seamounts, which support a dazzling array of seafloor marine life.’’

Paulin said the fishing industry needed to fish only 11% of the seamounts to support food, jobs and export earnings for New Zealanders.

‘‘A ban on seamount fishing is unnecessary and irresponsible. It is about starvation, not sustainability, and there will be no significant ecosystem improvement, and no growth in fish numbers.’’

The seabed of New Zealand’s trawled seamounts was damaged by past fishing activity, but fish still congregated there, along with corals and crustaceans, he said.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) had recorded 142 seamounts in New Zealand’s EEZ, and 71 of these were already closed to trawling by Benthic Protection Areas and Seamount Closure Areas, while 56 had never been trawled, Sealord said. Deepwater fishers continued to trawl along historic tracks of the remaining 15 (11%) seamounts for quota.

George Clement, chief executive of the Deepwater Group – which represents quota owners of New Zealand’s deepwater fisheries – said Sealord’s proposition could be included in talks the industry was having with the Ministry of Primary Industries, the Department of Conservation and environmental groups, as part of a forum that was considering further controls on trawling within the EEZ.

However, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition ocean advocate Karli Thomas said she believed Sealord’s proposal was a ploy. It would be seen to be protecting seamounts, but could continue trawling all the seamounts it currently fished and stave off further restrictions.

She said Niwa had identified over 800 seamounts in New Zealand waters, but the fishing industry had been trying to whittle it down to a list of only 142 of the tallest.

‘‘It’s a last-ditch attempt to bed in the status quo and get some more years or decades out of trawling seamounts and biodiversity hotspots,’’ Thomas said.

‘‘We are facing an extinction crisis, and underwater mountains are known to be oases of deep-sea corals, sponges and other ancient and fragile deep-sea life.’’

The coalition was still seeking a complete ban on bottom trawling of seamounts, Thomas said, and was seeing strong public support for this.