Deep Sea Trawling Threatens Marine Biodiversity

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, February 11, 2004 (ENS) - The international community must take steps to protect fragile marine ecosystems from commercial fishing trawlers that drag heavy chains, nets and steel plates across the deep sea floor, environmentalists say. The practice is the single greatest threat to the biodiversity of the deep ocean, and could be restricted without much cost to the fishing industry, according to a new report from a trio of environmental groups.

The report, released Tuesday by WWF, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), focuses on the fate of fisheries in international waters some 400 meters to 2,000 meters below the surface.

The report was issued at the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting here through February 20, and the environmental groups are urging delegates to take immediate action.

Deep water coral are being destroyed by trawlers. (Photo by Erling Svensen courtesy WWF-Canon )

These fisheries are spread across the high seas of the southwest Pacific, northern Atlantic and southwest Indian Oceans. In all three areas, the report details evidence of destructive bottom trawl fishing along the continental margin where it extends beyond 200 miles and on seamounts, oceanic ridges, and plateaus of the deep ocean floor.

The biodiversity of deep sea beds is very high and marine biologists estimate these ecosystems provide habitat for some 500,000 to 100 million species.

Environmentalists compare deep sea trawling to clearcutting ancient old growth forests. They fear indiscriminate destruction by trawlers could wipe out some species even before scientists can discover them.

They say the practice is harming known species such as corals and sponges, which are slow growing, long lived, and sensitive to disturbance.

The report details that some 300 fishing vessels from 13 nations took 95 percent of the reported high seas bottom trawl catch in 2001. The 13 nations include several European countries, as well as Russia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The deep water bottom trawlers target a wide variety of species, including prawns, orange roughy, and Greenland halibut, but the study says the overall contribution of this sector to global food security is "negligible."

The economic value of this catch is estimated by the report at $300 million to $400 million a year - a tiny fraction of the overall industry's annual take of $75 billion.

Trawl fishing is the most common method used to fish the bottom of the deep seas, and without tighter restrictions it is expected to increase in the near future.

The increasing pressure on deep sea fisheries is a direct result of two factors unlikely to change - the depletion of fisheries closer to shore and a rising demand for seafood.

There are few if any regulations on bottom trawl fishing in international waters, and this is the situation environmentalists say must change if unique and fragile deep sea ecosystems are to be safeguarded for future generations.

"The international community as a whole has a collective responsibility to ensure the conservation of fish stocks and the protection of biodiversity on the high seas," the groups say in their report.

Deep sea trawling has helped contribute to a sharp decline in orange roughy. (Photo by Australian Fisheries Management Authority courtesy WWF)

The report notes that the UN General Assembly in 2002 called for the international community "to consider urgently ways to integrate and improve, on a scientific basis, the management of risks to marine biodiversity of seamounts and certain other underwater features" within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The international community needs to devise, manage and enforce a global representative network of high seas marine protected areas, the environmentalists said, that is consistent with international law and based on scientific information.

"Deep sea ecosystems like cold water coral reefs can be destroyed by a single trawl," Gianni said. "It is time that the international community takes action before they are completely wiped out."

International action to protect ocean species is never easy and the study's authors acknowledge that it will be difficult to convince individual nations to accept a moratorium.