Bottom trawling strategy
The New Zealand government has developed a strategy aimed at improving the protection of high seas biodiversity and addressing the threat to seamounts and other vulnerable underwater structures from bottom-trawling.
The strategy reflects New Zealand concerns about the environmental impact of bottom-trawling.
Negotiations in New York will determine whether there is sufficient support for a UN resolution calling for a global moratorium on bottom-trawling to be a practical or enforceable option.
New Zealand would be prepared to support, in principle, the concept of an interim global moratorium on bottom-trawling on the high seas if such a proposal had sufficient support to be a practical and enforceable option for improving biodiversity protection on the high seas. At a minimum, New Zealand would need to be confident of the commitment of key likeminded fishing nations to a moratorium before lending its support to the proposal.
New Zealand is directing its efforts to promoting a package of proposals that will deliver both timely, sustained improvements to the protection of marine biodiversity from the impacts of fishing, and short term protection where it is needed. This package will be pursued regionally, internationally and nationally.