With contentious fisheries reforms on hold, should NZ rethink bottom trawling?

New Zealand's controversial Fisheries Amendment Bill has been delayed until after the general election, but the debate over bottom trawling — the country's most common commercial fishing method — continues. Per The Conversation, the technique accounts for roughly two-thirds of New Zealand's commercial catch by volume and generates around two billion dollars in annual export earnings. But marine scientists document severe environmental costs: between 1992 and 2018, trawlers incidentally caught over four thousand marine mammals, most of which did not survive. Bottom trawling also disrupts the seabed — home to slow-growing corals and sponges that take decades to recover — and stirs up carbon locked in sediment that may contribute to ocean acidification. Between 1990 and 2025, trawling affected an area of New Zealand waters nearly twice the size of both its North and South islands combined. Marine scientists propose protecting fifty percent of New Zealand's waters from the practice as a way forward — currently only fifteen percent of fishable depths are closed.

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