Habitat Protection and Research It is widely accepted that some
fishing methods, such as bottom trawling and dredging, impact on
the seabed and may cause damage to marine habitats and
ecosystems. Most fishing of this type occurs in water depths of
less than 1200m (these make up around 30 percent of our economic
zone). The Ministry of Fisheries has recognised this problem and
has a number of closures in place to protect the seabed. The
Ministry has also commissioned a range of research projects to
find out more about seabed habitats and communities and how they
are affected by bottom trawling and dredging. Current and Future
Management Policy and strategic frameworks to implement sea-bed
protection have been under development for sometime now, and
include the Strategy for Managing the Environmental Effects of
Fishing and the Marine Protected Areas Policy and Implementation
Plan. The government has already closed a number of areas to
trawl and dredge fishing. These include coastal trawl and dredge
closures to p