Deep sea orange roughy mural, Ponsonby, Auckland.
Artist: Cinzah. Photo: Monster Valley

Kia ora Friend,

Most New Zealanders consider themselves be part of an environmentally aware country that has limited impact on the world's marine environment. So it is shocking to learn that New Zealand is currently the ONLY country bottom trawling seamounts in the international waters of the South Pacific.

As such, New Zealand fishing vessels are responsible for the destruction of vulnerable deep-sea coral forests - biodiversity hotspots that support the health of the ocean.

As kiwis with an eye out for our future generations, we must do what we can to stop this.

No more High Seas Permits for bottom trawling in the South Pacific

According to a recent survey, almost 80% of kiwis oppose any kind of bottom trawling, both inshore and offshore.

We know seamounts are in need of protection. Deep sea corals are slow growing and fragile, making them highly vulnerable to damage from bottom trawling. These seamounts perform a vital role in the functioning of the ocean, providing habitats for juvenile fish, and feeding areas for ocean giants such as humpback whales. 

With less impactful fishing methods available, such as longlining and mid-water trawls, the Government has no reason to permit these vessels to continue bottom trawling.

We want to send a message directly to Fisheries New Zealand, calling on them not to issue any new High Seas Permits for the New Zealand bottom trawling fleet.

We have put together a simple form to allow you to send a message directly to the Director General of the Ministry of Primary Industries, Ray Smith, and the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries David Parker asking them NOT to renew these permits.

Bottom trawler found guilty of fishing in closed area

A guilty verdict has been delivered today to a Talley's-owned bottom trawler, the Amaltal Apollo, and its skipper, for illegally bottom trawling on seamounts in international waters.

An astonishing 4 years after the event, the verdicts were for undertaking 14 illegal trawls in  an area closed to bottom trawling, on Lord Howe Rise in the Tasman Sea.

"The damage done by bottom trawling is irrefutable", says Sam Woolford of LegaSea. "These protected areas were implemented to save a small part of the habitat from destruction. So when commercial fishers won't even respect protected areas it's clearly time to stop bottom trawling once and for all. Enough is enough."

Read full the LegaSea and DSCC coalition press release here.

LegaSea competition winners announced!

Our summer photo competition has come to a close, and we are astonished by the quality of everyone's entries this year. You will be seeing many of these photographs in our communications over the year to come. Thank you to everyone who entered for showing us how much you care about New Zealand's marine environment. 

This year we are thankful to have professional photographer Alex Wallace judge this summer's best shots. Alex is a professional photographer with years of passionate experience. His continual generosity to photograph our LegaSea team and events shows his commitment in supporting more fish in the water. 

Check out Alex's work here.

Here are this year's winners from each category:

Congratulations to all the winners! We will be in touch soon to get your prize packs to you. Well done to everyone that entered for some epic photography.

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Ngā mihi

Benn and the LegaSea crew

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