Jump to content

Australia Spearheads Seabed Trawling Ban


mrmoshe

Recommended Posts

A CAMPAIGN led by Australia has received a boost as the US agreed to support a moratorium on fishers trawling their nets deep on the ocean floor in international waters.

The US's shift in position came on the eve of a United Nations debate aimed at banning the practice in unregulated waters.

Countries control fishing within their waters, but 64 per cent of the world's oceans are unregulated, allowing commercial fishing fleets to use new technology to trawl up to one kilometre deep using giant, weighted nets.

Last month the Australian Government announced it supported a timetable for banning the deep sea trawling where it was proven to be destructive to ecosystems.

Under the proposal, nations would have until next July to regulate fishing in the seas under their control, and regional fisheries management organisations would have until the end of the next year to implement agreements in the high seas. If there was no regional agreement in place or being developed, bottom trawling would be banned.

Australia has already moved to protect sensitive undersea mountains caused by volcanic activity in Australian waters - a stand applauded by environmental groups including Greenpeace and the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, and which is supported by New Zealand and the tiny island nation of Palau. More support came from the actor Sigourney Weaver, who introduced herself at a UN news conference in New York as "a citizen of the world, an earthling", who had dreamed of becoming a marine biologist "but the maths was beyond me".

Bottom trawling was devastating the ocean's last frontier, she said. "The high seas belong to no single country, and they certainly do not belong to these owners of large industrial fishing corporations … These corporations are raping these oceans beyond sight and beyond regulation."

Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, said a ban on fishing the deep ocean floor might be necessary because the marine lifeforms there grew extremely slowly and were highly vulnerable to being wiped out by overfishing.

"We know very little about the deep seas, but what we do know suggests it is the largest, most biologically rich place on this Earth," Dr Pikitch said.

"The threat is serious; the need for action is urgent."

Australia's UN ambassador, Robert Hill, said the global picture of conservation of the marine environment was dismal.

New Zealand supports the Australian initiative, but wants to make an exception for areas while they are being studied for a regional agreement.

Support for a ban on deep ocean trawling is growing, with the European Commission, Brazil, Chile, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, and most Pacific island nations also opposing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...