What is bottom trawling and why is it so bad?

What are seamounts?

What can I do about bottom trawling?

What is bottom trawling and why is it so bad?

Bottom trawling is a highly destructive fishing method which involves dragging huge, heavy nets along the sea floor. Large metal plates and rubber wheels attached to these nets move along the bottom and crush nearly everything in their path. You can view a video of bottom trawling here. Bottom trawling is considered to be one of the most damaging fishing methods for ocean biological diversity. We know from studies in shallow waters that bottom trawling not only catches the target fish species but can also result in high levels of incidentally caught species. Evidence indicates that deep water life forms are very slow to recover from such damage, taking decades to hundreds of years, if they recover at all. Read more here.

What are seamounts?

Seamounts are mountains on the deep ocean floor. They rise at least 1,000 metres above the surrounding seafloor. It has been estimated that there are tens of thousands of seamounts across the world's oceans: upwards of 800 in the Atlantic Ocean, with more than 30,000 believed to be in the Pacific Ocean. The biodiversity of these seamounts is unique. Many seamount-dwelling species are not found anywhere else and it is believed that some are confined to only one or two seamounts. Unfortunately these deep water species are threatened by destructive bottom trawling. Read more about seamounts here.