Sea-bottom pics reveal destruction

Some of the sea life adversely affected by New Zealand-flagged bottom trawlers

Photos of ancient coral and other deep-sea species show how rare marine life is being destroyed by bottom trawling, says the environmental group Greenpeace.

The organisation has what it calls "damning" photos of a wide variety of corals and fish caught in trawling nets during sweeps for deep-sea fish species. The pictures were obtained from the Ministry of Fisheries under the Official Information Act.

The 185 images were taken by min "observers" - who travel with the fleet to police fishing activity - over the past two fishing seasons.

Greenpeace campaigner Carmen Gravatt said the photos represented only a tiny sample of what was being gouged from the seabed.

"Less than 5 per cent of New Zealand-flagged trawlers have observers on board and not all observers take photos," she said.

The release of the images follows last year's tussle between the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior and New Zealand's orange roughy fishing fleet off the coast of New Plymouth, when protesters attached floats to fishing nets to stop the boats doing their work.

It also comes as 150 delegates from 25 countries, including New Zealand, Australia and Chile, begin meeting in Wellington tomorrow to discuss setting up a regional fisheries organisation to manage fishing in the Tasman Sea and southern Pacific Ocean.

Auckland University of Technology marine scientist Dr Steve O'Shea said species in the photos included rare black coral, a deep-water octopus (opistoteuthis) and a rare barnacle thought to live on sea "mounts" - mountains of rock and coral with water vents deep below the surface that teem with marine life.

He said the photos proved trawlers were hitting the seabed.

"I think the most damning thing was the number of shots of black coral. Without doubt, trawl nets are hitting the bottom," Dr O'Shea said.

Trade in black coral is restricted under the United Nations' CITES convention .

Meanwhile, Greenpeace says two statements by the fishing industry on bottom trawling appear to contradict each other.

In a defence of bottom trawling, the Seafood Industry Council said last year that technology allowed boats to "fly" trawl gear above the sea bottom "with little impact on the sea floor or organisms that live on the bottom".

But a ministerial briefing late last year to Foreign Minister Winston Peters - who will be New Zealand's representative on international committees affecting the seafood industry - said the opposite.

"All of the orange roughy and deep sea oreo dory fisheries rely on deep sea trawls that contact the sea bottom during the trawl sweep," Seafood Industry Council chief executive Owen Symmans wrote to Mr Peters.