Feature story - October 25, 2006
Scientists and governments worldwide are calling for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling, an incredibly destructive industrial fishing practice. Even George Bush supports a ban. But the Canadian government is blocking action at the UN.
Greenpeace, along with more than a thousand scientists, supports the call for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling because of the vast amount of marine life that is destroyed by this fishing method.
Bottom trawling 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.
All 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.
If allowed to continue, the bottom
trawlers of the high seas will destroy deep sea species before we
have even discovered much of what is out there.
Scientists and governments (including Brazil, Germany, the UK,
Palau, Australia and the US) worldwide are calling for a moratorium
on high seas bottom trawling. Even George Bush supports stopping
the practice. But the Canadian government's obstructionist position
and tactics are blocking action at the UN.
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