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24 November 2004: World Conservation Congress tells UN to declare a moratorium on deep sea bottom trawling
Bangkok. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) recently failed to take urgent action to halt bottom trawling on the high seas. Just over a week later, the IUCN World Conservation Congress effectively said it should have. Members of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) passed a resolution that calls on the UNGA to declare a moratorium on deep sea bottom trawl fishing on the high seas.
The resolution passed with clear support from both chambers of the congress. 62 countries voted for the resolution that was sponsored by Costa Rica, the Natural Resources Defense Council and 10 other organisations, defeating opposition from Canada, Japan, Spain and a handful of other countries. The resolution also received the overwhelming support of non-governmental organisations who voted 281 to five in favour. Coming from one of the world's foremost international environmental forums dedicated to promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, the IUCN resolution demonstrates the growing recognition of the need to urgently protect life in the deep ocean from the world's most destructive fishing practice - bottom trawling. "This is an important breakthrough in the campaign to preserve the fragile habitats of the high seas," said Matthew Gianni, political advisor to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. "The UN General Assembly failed to take decisive action on this issue earlier this month but the support of the IUCN and its government members will bring additional strength to the campaign for a moratorium next year."
It is only recently that we have come to learn that the deep oceans are teeming with life. Corals exist not only in tropical waters, but also flourish in the cold depths of the world's oceans. It is estimated that they are home to up to 10 million species, most of which have yet to be discovered. This incredible reservoir of biodiversity - equivalent to the richest rainforest - is found on the peaks and slopes of submerged underwater mountains known as seamounts. Tens of thousands of seamounts are scattered across the world's oceans - fragile underwater islands of biodiversity supporting highly endemic species. The fact that many deep water species also grow very slowly, makes them even more vulnerable to over-exploitation. Corals may live for up to five thousand years, while orange roughy is a fish that can live for up to 150 years.
But bottom trawlers primarily from Spain, the EU and Russia* are raking up this fragile underwater world as they expand their operations into deeper waters on the high seas. Dragging heavy nets, cables and steel plates across the ocean floor, they target areas rich in deep water corals to catch a few commercial fish species like orange roughly that is caught by trawling on seamounts. Scientists often refer to orange roughy fisheries as "serial depletion" fisheries - when one stock is depleted, the fleet moves to a new one until it too declines. In one high seas trawl fishery for orange roughy off southern Australia, observers onboard a fleet of 20 fishing vessels estimated that over 10,000 tons of coral were dragged up for only 4,000 tons of fish in the first year of the fishery.
"A few hundred bottom trawl vessels from a handful of countries are roaming the high seas, fishing as they please," said Randall Arauz, of the Costa Rican Sea Turtle Restoration Program, who spoke out in favor of the resolution during the plenary debate on Wednesday afternoon (23rd November). "The high seas are the world's global commons and yet these few nations alone benefit from these fisheries while destroying deep sea biodiversity with impunity, to the detriment of all humankind."
(1)Gianni, M. High Seas Bottom Trawl Fisheries and their Impacts on the Biodiversity of Vulnerable Deep-sea Ecosystems: Options for International Action. IUCN/NRDC/WWF/CI. 2004
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