Regulate trawl fishing to protect deep-sea biodiversity: WWF<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Fishing in international waters by dragging heavy chains, nets
\nand steel plates across the ocean floor poses a major threat to
\ndeep-sea ecosystems and must be regulated, the World Wildlife
\nFund (WWF) conservation group said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A study commissioned by the WWF, the World Conservation Union
\n(IUCN) and the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council says
\nsuch trawling is the most common deep-sea bottom fishing method
\nworldwide and is considered to be the most damaging.<\/p>\n
While the management of fisheries within exclusive economic
\nzones is largely the responsibility of coastal states, the
\ninternational community as a whole has a collective
\nresponsibility for the high seas, the report notes.<\/p>\n
Less than 300 vessels are involved each year, making up a tiny
\nfraction of the world's fishing fleet of three million, but their
\nmethod "rapidly reduces ancient, thriving bottom complexes to
\nrubble," the study says.<\/p>\n
Deep sea features such as underwater mountains and cold water
\ncorals typically support slow-growing, long-lived species, with
\nfish living up to 150 years and coral structures lasting several
\nthousands of years.<\/p>\n
The report was presented on the sidelines of a conference of
\nthe parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which has
\ndrawn some 2,000 government officials, scientists and activists
\nto the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
Fishing vessels flagged to only 13 countries, mainly from the
\ndeveloped world, took more than 95 percent of reported high seas
\nbottom trawl catch in 2001, the last year for which data is
\navailable, the study shows.<\/p>\n
Those countries are expected to resist efforts to regulate
\ntheir activities, officials said.<\/p>\n
"If we try to get official figures reported on the fisheries
\nwhere the bottom trawling takes place from the European Union, we
\ncan't get them," Gordon Shepherd, the WWF director of
\ninternational policy, told AFP.<\/p>\n
"So if they're not willing to give out figures it seems
\nunlikely they're going to be too happy about contemplating
\nregulation."<\/p>\n
The WWF hoped the Kuala Lumpur conference would recommend a
\nmoratorium on bottom trawling "so we can get the science right
\nand the information in place that would allow us to make proper
\njudgments on how these fisheries could be managed correctly," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The contribution of trawl fishing to global food security is
\nnegligible, with the overall value not exceeding US$300-400
\nmillion annually, or 0.5 percent of the estimated global marine
\ncatch of $75 billion in 2001, the report says.<\/p>\n
But bottom trawl fishing is likely to expand in the coming
\nyears due to growing market demand for fish products in developed
\ncountries and increased regulation or restrictions on fisheries
\nwithin natural jurisdiction, it warns.<\/p>\n
The report says estimates of species inhabiting deep-sea areas
\nrange between 500,000 and 100 million, and a large percentage of
\nthese are vulnerable to extinction.<\/p>\n
It urges the United Nations to adopt and implement legally
\nbinding regimes to protect deep-sea biodiversity from high-seas
\nbottom trawling, and to conserve and manage these fisheries.<\/p>\n
The Convention on Biological Diversity grew out of the 1992
\nEarth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and aims to protect the diversity
\nof life on earth, where thousands of animal and plant species
\nface extinction, mainly from human economic development.<\/p>",
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