Protesters foil trawler's plans

Greenpeace activists use wire cables to tie the trawl doors together on the bottom trawler Ocean Reward. Picture / Greenpeace

Greenpeace activists were spared further use of a potato gun but copped angry words from fishers in a dramatic high seas protest over bottom trawling yesterday.

Greenpeace vessel the Rainbow Warrior is tailing New Zealand trawler Ocean Reward more than 500km off the coast of New Plymouth over a fishing practice it says is destroying life in the deep sea.

"It's a race against time to stop bottom trawlers wiping out life in the deep sea before we even know what's down there," said a campaigner on board the Warrior, Carmen Gravatt.

For the second day, protesters used inflatables to dart near the Ocean Reward, owned by Nelson fishing company Amaltal, cabling shut giant doors so the net could not be released. They also attached floats to the net to prevent it being lowered to the sea floor.

There had been angry scenes the day before as frustrated crew members on the Ocean Reward used compressed air guns to fire potatoes at protesters and aimed high-pressure hoses at them.

No one was hurt, Ms Gravatt said.

"Obviously out this far it is a little dangerous but we take a lot of safety precautions," she said, adding that Greenpeace had radioed the Ocean Reward to say protesters did not want to interfere with navigation or endanger the vessel's crew.

Fishing operations were delayed for some hours yesterday, she said, but the fishing boat, understood to be trawling for orange roughy, was able to operate in the afternoon.

The protest would continue over the next few days, she said.

"It's an important time, with the world's Governments meeting in New York to discuss this issue."

The sixth meeting of the United Nations Informal Consultation on Oceans and the Law of the Sea began in New York on Monday.

Amaltal director Andrew Talley said the company hoped to lodge a restraining order against the protesters this morning.

"They've cost us tens of thousands of dollars and losses are mounting by the hour."