A petition to ban bottom trawling on underwater mountains has amassed 20,000 signatures in one week.
The petition was launched by environmental groups including Forest and Bird, Greenpeace, and WWF New Zealand as well as recreational fishers.
It's calling for the government to ban the destructive practice on seamounts, or submarine mountains, and other ecologically sensitive areas.
A recent report from NIWA on the impact of bottom trawling, found that ecosystems on the seamounts showed little signs of recovering from bottom trawling.
Greenpeace's oceans campaigner Jessica Desmond says there's an enormous amount of public support for the ban.
