This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.
These regulations, which come into force on the 28th day after the date of their notification in the Gazette, amend the Fisheries (South-East Area Commercial Fishing) Regulations 1986 to prohibit trawling in certain areas. The purpose of the prohibition is to protect certain seamounts and their surrounding areas.
A seamount is a protruding irregularity or bottom feature that rises above the sea floor, and may be either stand alone or form part of a chain or range of hills.
The particular seamounts round which trawling is prohibited by the new regulation 4C are those known by some fishers as Pinnie, Morgue, Pyre/Gothic, and Diamond Head, and that identified by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research as seamount number 328.