Bottom trawling at the end of the line?
08 May 2007
Renaca, Chile - A landmark agreement has been reached to end high seas bottom trawling, one of the world's most destructive fishing practices, in nearly a quarter of the world's oceans.
The deal, made at an international fisheries meeting in Chile by some 20 countries, including the majority of the world's high seas fishing nations, seeks to protect marine life and vulnerable ecosystems in a huge area of the oceans - from Australia to South America and from the Equator to the Antarctic.
"The agreement is a great leap forward for halting the decline in ocean biodiversity and establishing good fisheries management on the high seas," said Alistair Graham, High Seas Policy Advisor at WWF International.
The agreement will exclude bottom trawling from high seas areas where vulnerable ecosystems are likely or known to occur, until an impact assessment is undertaken and until precautionary measures to prevent destruction of marine life, such as vulnerable fish stocks, cold water corals and sponges, are implemented.
Observers will also be required on all high seas bottom trawlers to ensure that regulations are followed. The cost of these observers is to be borne by the fishing vessel. This, together with rising fuel prices, and the requirement to conduct research and assessments of the fisheries, will increase the cost of fishing and may well render high seas bottom trawling uneconomic and effectively lead to its end.
The deal goes into force on 30 September, well ahead of a deadline set by the UN General Assembly to halt bottom trawling in areas not covered by competent fisheries management organizations by the end of 2007.
The meeting was less successful with regards to open water fisheries. Important stocks of squid and mackerel are fished in the area. Some of these stocks are feeling the brunt of high fishing levels. Chilean jack mackerel, one of the economically most important fisheries in the South Pacific, has been reported as fully exploited. WWF is very concerned that the agreed interim measures to protect the pelagic mackerel stock while an agreement is being finalized are inadequate.
"If mackerel stocks are allowed to be overfished, the ecological, social and economic impacts would be serious, especially for dependent local communities and for species such as tuna and swordfish that feed upon mackerel," Alistair Graham said.
Find out more
Angela Heck, Communications Manager Partnerships, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1268
Mobile: 0421 053 023
Email: aheck@wwf.org.au
Jessica Battle, WWF Global Marine Programme
Phone: +41 22 364 9025
Email: jbattle@wwfint.org
NOTES
- Bottom trawling uses weighted nets and huge steel rollers that are dragged across the seafloor, crushing everything in its way, leaving only rubble behind. As coral reefs and sponge areas are damaged, the nursing and feeding grounds for many fish species are being lost, adversely affecting re-growth of fish stocks.
- Bottom trawlers target slow growing species, such as orange roughy and redfish, that are vulnerable to high fishing pressure as they take decades to reach breeding age.
- Only a few countries are engaged in high seas bottom trawling, with New Zeeland having by far the largest bottom trawling fleet in the South Pacific.
- The meeting last week in Reñaca, Chile, of representatives from 20 nations and the European Union was the third to negotiate a South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) for this huge ocean area.
- The area to be managed by the SPRFMO stretches from the most eastern part of the South Indian Ocean through the Pacific to the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of South America, and north to the Equator and south to the border of the Antarctic RFMO (CCAMLR).
- WWF wants to see the SPRFMO as a model for how all RFMOs should be equipped and mandated. It should be based upon the ecosystem-based management principles and set quota according to scientific advice.
