poptech: deep sea trawling
October 19, 2007 by Chris | permalink
this is so distrubing that i had to go to David Suzuki's webiste to show what this is.....from http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Oceans/Sust_fisheries/Trawling/
A large percentage of fish captured in global fisheries and in Canadian waters is caught using a bottom trawl or dragger. Bottom trawling involves pulling large nets along the ocean floor. All gear types that contact the ocean bottom have the potential to disrupt seafloor habitat. Bottom trawling, however, has been acknowledged as the most destructive form of fishing commercially practised.
The impacts from bottom trawling on seafloor habitats and species have been globally and scientifically recognized, and can be broadly categorized into habitat and species impacts.
Of immediate concern is the practice of deep-sea bottom trawling on the high seas. The deep-sea trawl fishery is relatively new and has emerged thanks to both gear modifications and technological advances (GPS and imaging, for example). Nets can now be dropped into areas where substrate conditions, or uncertainty of those conditions, used to bring too high a risk of net damage. Areas of the ocean that were once safe from direct physical impacts of human activities are now exposed to new, destructive threats. Species living in deep-sea habitats have several unique characteristics: they tend to be long-lived, slow-moving, slow to mature and reproduce, and unaccustomed to disturbance. Trawling over their habitat causes immense damage to both the habitat and the species assemblages.
Canada must take a leadership role in reforming the practices of bottom trawling in both international and national waters. Until very recently, the Canadian Government has largely ignored the impacts of trawling on the seabed.
