We are a group of year 13 students at St Mary's College that are passionate about Aotearoa New Zealand's marine environment. This passion has influenced us to create this petition for a ban on bottom trawling in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf. This is aligned with the Green parties policies and stance on bottom trawling. We strongly support this cause and we hope you do to!

Below is some information on the damage that bottom trawling has caused: Bottom trawling kills sea life and aquatic plants and coral that live on the surface of the seabed that is within the trawl path. This reduces biodiversity, species richness and abundance within the Hauraki Gulf ecosystem. In 2019 alone 3000 tonnes of deep-sea coral were destroyed by bottom trawling in New Zealand. Since the 1990's 11% of New Zealand's territorial sea has been damaged by bottom trawling with 68% of commercial fisheries using this method of fishing. If we continue this way we risk causing irreversible damage to the rich and abundant ecosystem of the Hauraki Gulf. 

This shows the current zones for bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf.