Maritime Union backs Greenpeace protest action against bottom trawling

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is sup­port­ing the direct action by Green­peace activists on the Rain­bow War­rior against bot­tom trawl­ing fish­ing ves­sels in the Tas­man Sea.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says it has become obvi­ous that over­fish­ing and bad prac­tices such as bot­tom trawl­ing were wreck­ing the envi­ron­ment, and would also destroy the indus­try that depends on the envi­ron­ment.

“The time has come to stop talk­ing and start direct action, because in our expe­ri­ence that is the only way to get things done.”

The Green­peace action is against the prac­tice of bot­tom trawl­ing, where weight­ed nets are dragged along the ocean floor, tear­ing up the habi­tat of seal­ife and caus­ing mas­sive dam­age.

Mr Han­son says New Zealan­ders need to think about the liveli­hoods of future gen­er­a­tions as well as the envi­ron­ment.

He says the fish­ing indus­try needs to be com­plete­ly over­hauled with much stronger reg­u­la­tion and a long term strat­e­gy to over­come its prob­lems, espe­cial­ly with regard to pay and con­di­tions for work­ers, and the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of fish stocks.

“The Mar­itime Union has been demand­ing action on the shock­ing treat­ment of over­seas crews fish­ing in New Zealand waters, and if that is how work­ers are being treat­ed we can only shud­der to think of how the envi­ron­ment is being wrecked.”