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Deep Sea Bottom Trawling: One Of The Most Destructive Fishing Practices

Dragging heavy gear on the sea floor, bulldozing everything in its path, catching all that's alive then discarding most of it as unwanted bycatch

Document created 27 January 2010, last updated 05 September 2012

Bottom trawling involves dragging large nets loaded with heavy weights along the sea floor, bulldozing everything in their path and indiscriminately catching all marine life, wanted or not (see Marine Conservation Biology Institute “Destructive fishing page” for a brief description of bottom trawling and additional resources, link below).

“A number of surveys have shown bottom trawl fishing to be highly destructive to the biodiversity associated with seamounts and deep-sea coral ecosystems and concluded that it is likely to pose significant risks to this biodiversity, including the risk of species extinction.” Quoted from the report: “High Seas Bottom Trawl Fisheries and their Impacts on the Biodiversity of Vulnerable Deep-Sea Ecosystems: Options for International Action ”, see WWF link below. This report provides detailed information about bottom trawling including status, locations, catch, ecosystem impacts and more.

For an example of bycatch leading species to extinction, see Daily Telegraph: “Blobfish: world's most 'miserable looking' marine animal facing exinction ”, 26 Jan 2010, link below.

For a survey of the impact of bottom trawling on the sea floor, see Terra Daily: “Human Impacts On The Deep Seafloor” 16 Sep 2010, link below.

For information about recognition of the scale of the issue and the need for action at government level, see NZ Department of Conservation, “Bottom trawling strategy” page, link below.

Environmental defense organizations have campaigns on this issue (for example see Greenpeace “Bottom trawling” page, link below).

Links to external websites:

[wb1]  Daily Telegraph - 26 Jan 10 - Blobfish: world's most 'miserable looking' marine animal facing exinction The world's most miserable-looking fish is in danger of becoming extinct, according to scientists.

[wb2]  Terra Daily - 16 Sep 10 - Human Impacts On The Deep Seafloor - Scientists have for the first time estimated the physical footprint of human activities on the deep seafloor of the North East Atlantic. The findings published in the journal PLoS ONE reveal that the area d

[wb3]  Marine Conservation Biology Institute - Click to view PDF: "What is a bottom trawl?"

[wb4]  Marine Conservation Biology Institute - Click to visit webpage: "Destructive fishing"

[wb5]  WWF - Click to read report: "HIGH SEAS BOTTOM TRAWL FISHERIES AND THEIR IMPACTS ON THE BIODIVERSITY OF VULNERABLE DEEP-SEA ECOSYSTEMS: OPTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION"

[wb6]  NZ Department of Conservation - Click to view page: "Bottom trawling strategy"

[wb7]  Greenpeace - Click to view page: "Bottom Trawling"

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