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Bottom trawling reports

Greenpeace has published a number of reports and studies on bottom trawling over the years. They are available to download below.

Bottom trawling reports, studies and documents

Deep-water fishing: time to stop the destruction

01 May 2005

Deep sea bottom trawling uses large, heavy gear that is designed to drag, across the sea bed, causing massive collateral damage. Habitats, such as ancient corals, some of them thousands of years old, which provide shelter for hundreds of other unique species, are also destroyed by these fishing activities. Overall, they catch tens of thousands of tonnes of species along with those being targeted, which are then dumped dead or dying back into the sea. Because of the slow growth of many of these deep sea fish (which may be older than your great-grandmother when you eat them), and because good breeding years may only occur once every decade or less, it will take centuries for nature to repair the damage already done.

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Chang Xing - Case Studies on IUU Fishing No. 2

27 April 2005

The Rainbow Warrior documented the high seas bottom trawling activities of the vessels that she encountered. One such vessel was the Belizean-flagged Chang Xing. The ownership, flag and fishing history of the Chang Xing is provided to the OECD High Seas Task Force as an example of unregulated fishing on the high seas. It is hoped that the example of the activities of this one vessel spurs decision-makers to act to prevent the ongoing destruction of deep sea biodiversity by the many others like it.

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Deep, Deep Trouble: Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the Regulation of High Seas Bottom Trawling

15 March 2005

Late last year, the United Nations General Assembly in its Fisheries Resolution expressed concern at the loss of sharks, albatross, fin-fish species and marine turtles as a result of incidental mortality, vulnerability of shark populations to over-exploitation, fishing overcapacity, illegal and unreported fishing, excessive bycatch, and the effects of destructive fishing activities on vulnerable marine ecosystems. It then tasked Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) with the responsibility of addressing these issues. Yet these issues have developed despite the existence of RFMOs, and the record of RFMOs in addressing these issues is far from reassuring, and there are structural and functional barriers to RFMOs addressing the issues in the future unless major reforms are implemented.

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Deep, Deep Trouble: Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the Regulation of High Seas Bottom Trawling

15 March 2005

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Address to the UN General Assembly calling for a moratorium on bottom trawling

16 November 2004

Greenpeace calls upon the UN to put words to action and ban bottom trawling: the most destructive fishing practice in the world.

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A net with holes: the regional fisheries management system

22 October 2004

Some countries have suggested that action by regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) would be sufficient to solve the problem of high seas bottom trawling. However, the management of fisheries on the high seas by RFMOs is highly fragmented and inconsistent. Most high seas areas, including all of the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the majority of the Atlantic Ocean, are not covered by RFMOs with the authority to manage deep sea bottom fisheries. Bottom trawl fishing in these regions is, by definition, unregulated high seas fishing.

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Bottom Trawling Factsheet

18 October 2004

Deep sea life is being destroyed by sea bottom trawling before scientists can unravel the mysteries of the deep. There is unprecedented concern about the destruction of our deep seas. More than 1000 eminent marine scientists from 60 countries have signed a public statement calling for a moratorium on bottom trawling in international waters.

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Oceans Factsheet - Moratorium on Bottom Trawling

18 October 2004

Greenpeace believes that the United Nations must act now by taking, effective actions to ensure the long-term viability of vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems. The first of those actions must be to pass a Resolution declaring an immediate moratorium on High Seas bottom trawling.

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Protecting The Deep Sea Under International Law - Legal Options for Addressing High Seas Bottom trawling

08 October 2004

Where fishing takes place on the high seas, international regulation is vague, international governance is minimal or non-existent, and reporting is patchy. This gap in current international law is exacerbated by a focus on the target fisheries, whereas many of the immediate impacts of deep-sea bottom trawling are upon the coral and sedentary species on the ocean floor.

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Protecting The Deep Sea Under International Law - Legal Options for Addressing High Seas Bottom trawling

08 October 2004

key legal analysis

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EXTRACT of Protecting the Deep Sea Under International Law: Legal Options for Addressing High Seas Bottom Trawling

04 October 2004

The law of the sea has evolved to regulate fishing primarily within exclusive economic zones (EEZs) which generally extend 200 nautical miles from the shorelines. Where fishing takes place on the high seas, international regulation is vague, international governance is minimal or non-existent, and reporting is patchy.

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Marine reserves for the North Sea and Baltic

01 July 2004

The marine reserves in the North Sea and Baltic called for by Greenpeace comprise areas which are important in protecting species and habitats and in creating areas for regeneration in both seas, and which will thus facilitate the integral protection of the ecosystems there. The maps of the marine reserves have been clearly designed so that diverse information about the North Sea and Baltic can be easily dealt with. They can be overlaid on all the other maps. This makes it possible to quickly identify aspects making the marine reserves essential (e.g. spawning grounds and incidence of harbour porpoises) and to see other conflicts between the marine reserves and their numerous commercial uses (e.g. bottom trawl fishing or the oil and gas industry).

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Bottom trawling reports

Bottom trawling reports, studies and documents

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