Conservationists in Tasmania, Australia, have locked horns with the fishing industry to protect the orange roughy fish species. The Humane Society International (hsi) has issued a call for protecting the underwater mountains, in which the fish lives, from trawlers. It wants 70 underwater mountains south of Tasmania on the national heritage list and the orange roughy on the endangered list. his' s Nicola Beynon complains that trawling is destroying the fish's habitat and population. "The stocks have crashed and the quotas that the Australian government has in place are not actually managing to recover those populations," she points out. The industry claims it is being responsible. Gail Richey of the trawling industry says: "The industry has closed St Helens Hill, the major spawning ground.
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