Stop Bottom Trawling in
Sensitive Habitats
Your help needed to protect endangered species
Your help needed to protect endangered species
We call on the seafood industry to stop bottom trawling in sensitive areas, including Māui and Hector’s dolphin habitats and fragile deep-sea coral ecosystems.
Bottom trawling devastates the seafloor, destroying coral forests, releasing carbon, and wiping out the food sources that dolphins and all marine life rely on to survive.
We're calling for an end to bottom trawling across all Māui and Hector’s dolphin habitats, including out to the 100m depth contour, and a ban on trawling vulnerable habitats where coral thrives.
Sign the petition. Share it with your community. Help us protect our oceans and stop bottom trawling.
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Where do we need to end bottom trawling?
Bottom Trawled Areas Around Aotearoa NZ
Hector's and Maui Dolphin Habitats (2016)
Stony Coral Habitat
Map showing spatial variation in the level of bottom trawl seafloor contact across the New Zealand region. The level of contact is presented as the Swept Area Ratio (SAR), the total accumulated swept area (km2 per 1 km2 grid cell) of all recorded bottom trawls between 1990 and 2020, shown on a log scale. Source: NIWA
Map showing distribution, protection measures and estimates of the four main populations, West Coast North Island; and West, South and East coasts South Island (2016).
Goniocorella dumosa (stony coral). Predicted abundance (number of individuals per 1000 m2). Predictions are based on an ensemble of BRT and RF hurdle models. Note: values are shown on a log scale; red circles indicate observed abundance at presence locations, largest circle size = 582 individuals per 1000 m2. Report prepared for Project POP2021-02, Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation, by NIWA August 2023.
What is wrong with bottom trawling?
Bottom trawling is devastating our oceans. It tears up the seabed, releases stored carbon, destroys deep-sea coral gardens, and kills vulnerable species, including seabirds, marine mammals, and endangered Hector’s and Māui dolphins. If we want to halt the rapid loss of ocean life, we urgently need to shift to more sustainable fishing practices.
Hector’s and Māui dolphins are on the brink.
Once described in historical accounts as “plentiful” and “ordinary,” Hector’s dolphins were once the most common dolphin species in Aotearoa waters, but their numbers are plummetting.
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Hector’s dolphins:
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~50,000 estimated in 1975
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Dropped to ~14,800 in the early 2010s
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Now only 10,000–15,000 remain, with some isolated populations as small as 40 individuals
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Māui dolphins:
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~500 estimated in 1970
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Fewer than 50 individuals over one year old remain today (2025)
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These are local taonga, found only in our waters. Without stronger protections, we risk losing them forever.
Many tonnes of coral have been dragged up by NZ trawlers.
A new report, Understanding coral bycatch Assessing large catches , reveals more than 13,400 incidents of protected coral being caught by bottom trawlers over the last 35 years. This widespread destruction—particularly around sensitive areas like seamounts—shows why bottom trawling must end on vulnerable habitats.
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tODAY
We Need to End Bottom Trawling
We need the New Zealand Fishing industry to stop bottom trawling in sensitive marine habitats, home to many endangered and at-risk species.
