Publication - 26 October, 2005
Supporting a moratorium on high seas bottom trawl fishing - Pacific Islands Forum Briefing Paper, October 2005
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Executive summary: The Pacific region is estimated to have between 30 – 50,000 seamounts. While commercial fishers do not yet target many seamounts in the Pacific, trends indicate a global expansion in the high seas bottom trawl fishery. With the Pacific seamounts most clearly mapped there is potential for expansion into this area in the near future. As noted above, bottom trawlers can now reach down to 2000 metres below the surface to trawl the ocean bottom. It is only a matter of time before the technology is developed for them to reach beyond those depths to even deeper areas. Just because they cannot fish deeper than that today does not mean that they will be unable to do so tomorrow.
Num. pages: 9