The New Zealand government has been accused of proposing "shameful" international rules on where fishing vessels can carry out bottom trawling - despite an international backlash against the practice.

Ocean conservationists say the Government's move is akin to arguing it is acceptable to cut down all the kauri in the Waitakere Ranges, because the native trees also grow in other forests.

But the Ministry for Primary Industries says it is not pushing for a rule change - but simply wants more guidance on how the environmental impact of trawling is assessed.

The stoush erupted after officials submitted a paper to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, which meets in Vanuatu on Monday. SPRFMO has 15 member states, and manages fisheries in the South Pacific.

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LAWRENCE SMITH Jessica Desmond is an oceans campaigner with Greenpeace New Zealand.

But the paper was quietly withdrawn after ten days in late January.

Environment groups say that's because of a backlash from other countries. But MPI says there was just too much other business on the meeting agenda.

Bottom trawling is the practice of dragging heavily weighted nets across the sea floor to sweep up deep sea fish, like orange roughy. Conservationists argue it "bulldozes" fragile marine life, including ancient coral forests growing on underwater volcanoes, known as sea mounts.

New Zealand owned fishing companies Talley's and Sealord bottom trawl in both local and international waters.

Last year, New Zealand researchers concluded the practice may be doing permanent and irreversible damage to the deep sea forests.

But the industry argues large areas - about 1.2 million square kilometres of seabed habitat are already protected from trawling and dredging.

ROGER GRACE/GREENPEACE Orange roughy catch is hauled aboard a NZ-flagged deep sea trawler in the Tasman Sea.

Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Jess Desmond said she was "disappointed" by the Government's presentation to the inter-governmental body.

"All around the world we're seeing people moving away from this incredibly destructive fishing practice.

"And then we've got New Zealand out here, arguing for more of it, more freedom to do it. That's essentially the point of the proposals they've put forward.

"New Zealanders aren't used to thinking of themselves as the environmental bad guys and in this context, they really are.

"It was a shameful paper and the Government should feel embarrassed for proposing it."

Hong Kong completely banned trawling in its waters in 2013, joining Indonesia, Palau and Belize.

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Malaysia and China, have no-trawl zones, and it is prohibited off much of the US' Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

And in 2017, the European Parliament banned bottom trawling in the deep-sea regions of the Atlantic Ocean.

BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF New Zealand's largest, state of the art deep sea fishing vessel, Sealord's Tokatu arrived in Nelson this morning.

Desmond said the paper proposes new rules for how vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) are identified.

"It includes uniqueness and endemic species and they are saying that there are things that might not not exist anywhere else in the world, but as long as there are other places where there are other unique species then it is fine to destroy these ones."

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an umbrella group of environmental organisations, said the proposals "flouted" international rules around ocean protection.

"[It] would have seen the Commission turn its back on 13 years of established and well-developed oceans policy, science and law," it said in a statement.

"New Zealand proposed that it was acceptable to destroy a vulnerable marine ecosystem on a seamount, as long as there are others in the region - or even the world. This is like arguing it is acceptable to cut down all the kauri in the Waitakere Ranges, because there are still kauri in the Waipoua Forest."

But MPI's Ruth Fairhall, deputy director general policy and trade, rejected the environmental groups' assessment of their paper saying it was "not correct."

"The paper was not proposing a change to the SPRFMO bottom fishing rules, these are due for review in 2021 and NZ is committed to the delivery of a substantial work programme to inform that review," a spokesman said.

"The paper was seeking Commission guidance on the spatial scale to assess the impacts of bottom fishing under the current SPRFMO measure."

The United Nations General Assembly is reviewing its resolutions on sustainable fisheries, which include bottom fishing.

"New Zealand is committed to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions; preventing significant adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems in bottom fisheries. The SPRFMO bottom fishing rules implement those resolutions...New Zealand will engage constructively in those reviews," Fairhall said.

Two years ago Stuff revealed the Government pulled out of plans to restrict deep sea trawling that would have protected orange roughy, after the fishing industry threatened legal action.

Officials and scientists from New Zealand and Australia had been working on the joint proposal since 2012 and it was due to go in front of SPRFMO in Peru January 2018.

And last year, Forest and Bird released letters which appeared to show bottom trawling companies lobbied against seabed protection in the South Pacific.

They were opposing a SPRFMO "move on" rule, which would require bottom trawlers to stop fishing in an area and move on if they pull up too many corals, sponges, and other vulnerable and long-lived ocean life.

The High Seas Fisheries Group was also approached for comment.