Explanatory note

This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Marine Legislation Bill. Currently, bottom trawl fishing and dredging are prohibited activities in benthic protected areas. It is inconsistent to allow seabed mining in these areas, which also has an environmental impact on the seafloor environment. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended in her submission to the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill “to consider extending the prohibition on bottom trawling and dredging activities in the benthic protection areas to all activities that would impact on the sea floor” and this amendment addresses the most significant environmental activity to impact the benthic environment in these marine protected areas.