K S Steele

Imagine if dairy farmers were ploughing up their productive paddocks and kiwifruit growers were ripping out their vines to seek out the last bit of profit. Sound crazy?

Out of sight, the New Zealand seabed is being ripped up, just like that, day by day, by bottom trawling fishing boats.

Whole ecosystems are being destroyed, leaving deserts behind.

Info from Stats NZ shows that seabed bottom trawling has covered 48 percent (112,423 km2) of coastal environments shallower than 250m.

Jono Ridler, the ultramarathon swimmer, left Cape Reinga on January 8 to swim to Wellington. His main reason? To draw attention to our damaged marine environment and fuel a groundswell of opposition to this outdated fishing method.  

Jono is now in the Eastern Bay. On Wednesday he was swimming close to Moutohorā (Whale Island) on his way towards Cape Runaway,  

Let’s get the Eastern Bay behind him.

Sign the petition to ban bottom trawling at swim4the ocean.org