A flotilla of crafts surrounding a massive “ban bottom trawling” banner protested off Auckland’s Mission Bay today against bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf marine park.

Hundreds of people turned out on the beach and on the water for the event organised by Greenpeace Aotearoa and Forest and Bird.

More than 60 vessels from yachts to kayaks and paddleboards joined the flotilla, surrounding a huge banner calling for an end to bottom trawling in the Gulf.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific fisheries reports

“We’re here to call for an end to destructive bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana to protect our big blue backyard for the future,” said Greenpeace oceans campaigner Ellie Hooper.

“All these people are here today because they want a thriving, vibrant Hauraki Gulf, free from the threat of destructive bottom trawling.

“Trawling has no place in this precious marine park and the public mandate for change is clear – more than 84 percent of people surveyed want trawling gone from the Gulf.

“It’s time the government listens and bans bottom trawling so the Gulf can recover.”

‘Biodiversity hotspot’
Forest and Bird Hauraki Gulf coordinator Bianca Ranson said: “Tīkapa Moana is a biodiversity hotspot, it is a taonga, and we must do everything we can to revitalise the mauri and life-sustaining capacity of the Gulf.

“Everything is connected in an ecosystem and it is deeply disappointing that bottom trawling is still being allowed to continue.

“From Byrde’s whales to manta ray and tarakihi to tāiko,  the Hauraki Gulf is home to a treasure trove of marine life and bottom trawling puts all that life at risk, destroying the seafloor and indiscriminately catching more than the Gulf can sustain.”

Bottom trawling is an indiscriminate fishing method that involves dragging large weighted nets across the seafloor, bulldozing ocean life and destroying precious ecosystems.

A single trawl can create a sediment plume comparable in size to the entire Goat Island Marine Reserve, choking filter-feeding animals and smothering photosynthesising organisms.

A new look Regional Fisheries Ministers (RFMM) group met for the first time virtually last week to discuss the state of the Pacific Ocean and voiced their concerns over the state of coastal fisheries, climate change and marine pollution.

Their decisions reflected regional priorities for the fisheries and marine sector.

The ministers and senior officials were led by Cooks Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna and ministers representing Australia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Niue, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.

READ MORE: Forum Fisheries updates

Senior officials from French Polynesia, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu were also in attendance at the Noumea-hosted web forum.

Their talks reflected with concern on the results that have signalled a decline in the status of key indicator invertebrate and finfish species, and reef and ecosystem health, which have direct impacts on livelihoods and food security.

They called for the strengthening of coastal fisheries management.

Puna addressed the meeting, saying: “One undeniable and tangible resource, asset, and lifeline that we all possess is our shared fisheries resources”.

He called for initiatives to diversify the use of fisheries and marine resources, using innovative and collaborative approaches.

Statement of outcomes
While highlighting the Pacific’s strong response to the national and regional security threats the covid-19 pandemic has posed, he stressed the importance of enhancing fisheries management, maintaining food and economic security.

“Our collective response must always reflect how much we value our people, and the mana, resilience and Pacific community spirit that underpins the very fibre of our nations,” he said.

The meeting, chaired by the FSM’s Secretary for the Department of Resource and Development, Marion Henry, was hosted online, gathering Fisheries Ministers and officials from the Pacific Island Forum countries and territories as well as regional organisations

The talks covered regional coastal fisheries and aquaculture priorities and the impact of covid-19 on these fisheries, the 2020 Coastal Fisheries Report Card, and options for enhancing discussions on community-based management of coastal fisheries.

Ministers also endorsed the Regional Framework on Aquatic Biosecurity.

Hundreds of people from Blacksands, Kokoreko, Man Ples and Malapoa converged at Blacksands beach in the vicinity of the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila when the paramount chief of Ifira, Teriki Paunimanu Mantaoi Kalsakau III lifted the ban on harvesting of marine resources.

The paramount chief and his council traveled by banana boat to Blacksands where he declared the ban on the full length of Blacksands to Prima River lifted for the five days of the Easter weekend to allow the people of the area to be able to fish the area to supplement their protein during the weekend celebration of Easter.

Teriki Mantoi Kalsakau III said when lifting the ban yesterday he was glad to to do this to help the people living on the areas around the Blacksands sea coast.

He added that the ban on the harvesting of marine resources was important to enable the coast to become full of fish again.

In recent years the full coast was so overfished that fishermen had to go far out to sea in canoes and mostly boats to be able to catch fish.

He said the ban will be back in place on Tuesday after the Easter holiday was over and would last another two to two-and-a-half years before a similar lifting of the ban could take place.

The people of Ifira who look after the ban organised the day that saw nets that had been cast hours earlier drawn and others on canoes catch fish. The catch was shared with families to take home while some of the catch was also cooked at the beach for people to eat.

The Ifira community-based Resource Management ban on harvesting of marine resources in the area from Prima River to Kawenu was put in place towards the end of last year.

The paramount chief said it would be there for the next 12 years with periodical lifting of the ban to allow community harvesting to take place.

Jonas Cullwick is a former general manager of the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation (VBTC) and is now a senior journalist with the Vanuatu Daily Post.