Bottom Trawling
Today's trawlers are capable of fishing deep-sea canyons and rough seafloor that was once avoided for fear of damaging nets. To capture one or two target commercial species, deep-sea bottom trawl fishing vessels drag huge nets armed with steel plates and heavy rollers across the seabed, plowing up and pulverizing everything in their path. Fragile deep-water ecosystems, coral systems in particular, stand no chance against these ruthlessly effective underwater bulldozers. Once destroyed, slow-growing deep-sea species are either lost forever or unlikely to recover for decades or centuries.

Photographs include images from Greenpeace expeditions to document bottom trawling in the Grand Banks off Canada in the North West Atlantic in July 2005 and the North Atlantic in October 2004. View images For more photos from these expeditions visit the expedition shipblogs: Greenpeace: Defending the Deep Greenpeace Deep Sea Defenders, North Atlantic 2004

Greenpeace expeditions to document bottom trawling in the Tasman Sea off New Zealand in June 2004 and June 2005. View images For more photos from these expeditions visit the expedition shipblogs: Greenpeace: Defending the Deep

Where high resolution images are available for download, such images are available for free editorial use by media professionals, provided the copyright / photo credit information given below is reproduced and relevant organisation(s) credited.
In all other cases the relevant organisations and individuals must be contacted.