About 400 people rallied in Rarotonga on Friday to protest the use of purse seine fishing and fish aggregation devices by foreign vessels in Cook Islands waters.

Kelvin Passfield, from the environmental NGO Te Ipukarea Society, says there was a very good turnout with people, including fishers, wanting a ban on the devices and for the Cook Islands government to reduce the number of international fishing days it sells.

Cook Islands has 1250 fishing days allocated to it by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, and has only sold about 700.

However, Mr Passfield says he thinks this is still too many, and many in the country feel the same, but the government is refusing to listen.