26/07/2005 - Bottom trawling
is the equivalent to clear-cutting the ocean
floor: giant nets, the size of football pitches
are weighted across the bottom with heavy
steel rollers that indiscriminately smash
and crush cold-water corals, sponge forests,
and other bottom-dwelling life, swallowing
everything in their path.
The fish these trawlers are seeking are only
a small fraction of the life they destroy
-- unwanted "bycatch" is simply
thrown overboard. Imagine using a bulldozer
to destroy an entire forest just to catch
a few rabbits: that's the kind of indiscriminate
destruction we're talking about.
The destruction of deep-sea life in international
waters off the east coast of Canada is especially
troubling because, unlike most other international
waters, there is a regulatory body in place
to regulate high-seas bottom trawling in that
area: NAFO, the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation.
But according to Bruce Cox, Executive Director
of Greenpeace Canada, NAFO "is bound
by red tape, has little punishment for member
countries... and it turns a blind eye frequently
to infractions of their own rules."
A highly critical Greenpeace report cites
failure after failure by the regulatory body
to stop overfishing and destructive fishing
practices: the collapse of Canada's cod fisheries
in 1992 is the most infamous example.
"Without radical changes, Regional Fisheries
Management Organisations such as NAFO will
be unable to protect deep sea biodiversity
and will continue to struggle to sustainably
manage their fisheries," said Martin
Willison, a marine scientist at Dalhousie
University.
Canadian Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan responded
to the report by telling The Canadian Press
that "NAFO needs to change," but
he stopped short of committing to advocate
for a moratorium on high-seas bottom trawling.
He doesn't seem to think that any fishing
method is inherently destructive -- perhaps
he should look at the huge 500 year-old piece
of coral we documented being pulled up in
the nets of a New Zealand bottom trawler just
last month.
"Countries like Costa Rica, Germany,
Chile, Austria, Belgium have all moved toward
the call for a moratorium on high-seas bottom
trawling," notes our Oceans Campaigner
Bunny McDiarmid. "Even the fishing industry
itself concedes that this is the most damaging
of all fishing methods."
We think Canada should rethink its position.
And we're sending the Greenpeace ship Esperanza
to the Grand Banks to show the Canadian public
precisely why.
You can follow the efforts of the Esperanza
over the next few weeks as the ship documents
the destruction, by checking in on the Defending
the Deep Shipblog.
But in the meantime, please join the call
for a moratorium on high-seas bottom trawling.
Give bottom trawlers the (fish) finger.
