Orange Roughy Photo: Mountains to Sea
For the second year in a row New Zealand has blocked an Australian-backed proposal to restrict bottom trawling in the South Pacific, and has faced criticism from countries including the United States and Australia for doing so.
The proposal sought to protect 70 percent of high biodiversity areas, such as seamounts, within bottom trawling areas, leaving 30 percent. open to the industry. The 70 percent ban was originally proposed by New Zealand under the previous Government. However, New Zealand then back-tracked on its own proposal, after the Government changed, and the proposal was picked up by Australia at last month's South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation meeting in Chile.
Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says he is committed to "looking after our own people, looking after jobs and opportunities for economic development to benefit New Zealand", and that "NZ will no longer tolerate being pushed around in the Pacific". Lynda Goldsworthy has attended South Pacific regional fisheries meetings as an academic advisor on the Australian delegation for the past 5 years.
She says New Zealand's commitment to bottom trawling means Australia must be prepared to have New Zealand as an opponent rather than ally when it comes to fisheries policy.
