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DSCC members will be attending or monitoring the following meetings.
Contact us
for more information.
2008
FAO Technical Consultation on International Guidelines for
the Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries in the High Seas, 25 - 29 August, Rome
NAFO
Annual Meeting, 22 - 26 September, Vigo, Spain
IUCN World Conservation Congress,
October 5-14, Barcelona, Spain
SPRFMO, 6th negotiating session, 6 - 10 October,
Canberra, Australia
Northwest Pacific negotiating session, 14 - 18 October,
Tokyo
CCAMLR (Commission
and Scientific Committee), 27 October -7 November, Hobart, Australia
NEAFC Annual
Meeting, 10-14 November
London (Dumping) Convention, November, London, UK
Complete calendar
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The Science
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Related Links
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Recent Discoveries
• Fishy start for low-fat ice-cream, 26 June 2006, BBC News
• Deep ocean trawl nets new 'bugs', BBC News, 4 May 2006
• CenSeam researcher Bertrand Richer de Forges talks about new discovery, CenSeam, 21 April 2006
DSCC News
• More evidence, support and a new proposal, 15 June 2006
• Deep-water sharks, polar bears and hippopotamus face extinction, 4 May 2006
• Study Shows Shocking Decline In Deep-Sea Bottom Trawled Species, 6 January 2006
More news
DSCC Features
• Deep sea life can be saved - if the international community acts now, an interview with Dr. Sylvia Earle, 20 March 2006
Listen to the interview
• Deepwater sharks in extreme decline: ICES recommends zero catch, 10 November 2005
• The Lophelia reefs of the Minch, by Andrew J. Davies and J. Murray Roberts of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, DSCC feature, 14 October 2005
More Features
Tours & Expeditions
• DSCC Science Tour
• Greenpeace Defending Our Oceans
• Greenpeace expeditions to document bottom trawling in the North Atlantic and Tasman Sea in 2004 and 2005
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The Census of Marine Life (CoML), is making an inventory of biodiversity in the oceans. It is not just a question of finding new species but of understanding how and where animals like this baby octopus live, what they live on and what conditions they need.
© Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska at Fairbanks/NOAA/Census of Marine Life
As well as more than 1,000 samples of plankton, the voyage also turned up some unusual fish. This is believed to be a new species of dragon fish, though confirmation will take some time.
Image: Tracey Sutton, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
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1,452 scientists from 69 countries have signed a statement calling on governments and the United Nations to adopt a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling (1). Concerns about damage to deep-sea ecoystems continue to grow. A number of the world's leading deep ocean scientists are continuing their tour around Europe in 2006 to bring their concerns directly to decision makers. Scientists from the Australia, Canada and the UK have sent letters to their governments calling for action (2).
Along with these scientists, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) is calling for a short-term moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawling on the high seas. This reprieve would provide immediate protection to the extraordinarily rich, vulnerable and mostly undiscovered biodiversity of the deep seas whilst legally-binding conservation and management regimes can be developed.
Today, scientists know that the deep sea is teeming with life, most of which remains undiscovered. Indeed, scientists have speculated that as many as 10 million species may inhabit the deep sea: biodiversity comparable to the world's richest tropical rainforests. They are slowly discovering ecosystems which are extraordinary in nature, often hosting species found nowhere else on the planet.
For the fishing industry also, the unreachable is now within reach. Advances in bottom trawl technology means that it is now possible to fish the deep sea's rugged floors and canyons. The scientists' statement expressed profound concern that "human activities, particularly bottom trawling, are causing unprecedented damage to the deep-sea coral and sponge communities on continental plateaus and slopes, and on seamounts and mid-ocean ridges." They urged that the precautionary principle be used to ensure that the deep-sea environment is protected and "to avoid the very real threat of serious or irreversible damage to them by bottom trawling".
Never before have such a large number of scientists united around a specific marine environmental issue. The scientists' statement and letters referred to above, represent an unprecedented call to action by experts in marine sciences and conservation biology and a turning point in the mounting global campaign to halt deep-sea bottom trawling on the high seas.
Underlying the statements made by the scientists is a still-emerging body of science. Scientists are only just beginning to understand the diversity, significance and vulnerability of deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems, and it is estimated that an incredibly small number - less than one percent - of the world's seamounts have been explored. One of the driving forces behind the scientists' statement and letters, in fact, was mounting concern that entire deep-sea ecosystems will be destroyed before they can be subject to scientific study. More time, more science and more knowledge is needed.
Science Update 2006
Download pdf
A study published in Nature in January 2006, revealed serious declines in deep water species targeted for commercial fishing in the Northwest Atlantic - roundnose grenadier and the onion-eye or roughhead grenadier (commercially valuable species) and blue hake, spiny eel and spinytail skate (taken as bycatch in other fisheries). (3) The authors concluded that the steep rate of decline qualifies these species as "critically endangered" according to IUCN criteria.(4)
In February, new results from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems Program (MAR-ECO) showed that that deep-sea pelagic fish may be gathering at underwater features such as ridges and seamounts, to spawn before dispersing. Presented at the Ocean Sciences meeting in Honolulu, the findings have important implications for how deep-sea ecosystems should be managed to prevent devastation by deep trawling activities.
The findings imply that seamounts are ridges are likely to be critical to the preservation of the species involved. Unprotected, they are likely to become primary trawling targets, with devastating effects on spawning aggregations and thus on populations.
"Deep-sea fisheries are exploiting the last refuges for commercial fish species and should not be seen as a replacement for declining resources in shallower waters. Instead, deep-water habitats are new candidates for conservation, " concluded a report released in March.
Sharks and rays have been added to the 2006 IUCN Red List. IUCN says "This confirms suspicions that these mainly slow-growing species are exceptionally susceptible to over-fishing and are disappearing at an unprecedented rate across the globe." (5)
Notes:
(1) The scientists' statement of concern was initially signed by 1,136 scientists and released in February 2004 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting and the Seventh Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Marine Conservation Biology Institute subsequently (MCBI) re-opened the scientists' statement for signature in 2005, in response to requests from scientists wishing to join the moratorium call.
Scientists' Statement on Protecting the World's Deep-sea Coral and Sponge Ecosystems.
Full list of signatories
For more information visit MCBI's website.
(2) Scientists' Letters to their governments:
- Open letter from Australian scientists to Prime Minister, John Howard, 4 November 2005 (pdf)
- Open letter signed by 109 international marine scientists, conservationists and biodiversity experts attending the International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC1) in Geelong, Australia, to Australian Environment and Fisheries Minsters, Senators Ian Campbell and Ian MacDonald, 26 Oct 2005 (pdf)
- Open letter from United Kingdom scientists to Ben Bradshaw MP, UK Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries, 13 Oct 2005 (pdf)
- Open letter from Canadian scientists to Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada and Geoff Regan, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 17 Oct 2005 (pdf)
(3) Scientific and Political update 2006, DSCC (pdf)
Momentum in support of a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling continues to grow, January 2006, Addendum to Political Momentum is Building Rapidly (pdf)
Political Momentum Is Building Rapidly, April 2005 (pdf) English | French | German | Spanish
(4) Study Shows Shocking Decline In Deep-Sea Bottom Trawled Species, 6 January 2006, DSCC news
(5) Deep-water sharks, polar bears and hippopotamus face extinction, 4 May 2006, DSCC news
More information:
Scientific developments in 2004-2005
Visit the publications
section of this site for links to further scientific reports.
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