High seas bottom trawl fisheries and their impacts on the biodiversity of vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems

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Executive summary: The deep ocean is increasingly recognized as a major global reservoir of the Earth’sbiodiversity, comparable to the biodiversity associated with tropical rainforests and shallowwatercoral reefs. Though only a small fraction of the oceans’ ecosystems found at depthsbelow 200 meters have been studied, research has revealed remarkably high levels ofbiodiversity and endemism. Estimates of the numbers of species inhabiting the deep oceanrange between 500,000 and 100 million.The development of new fishing technologies and markets for deep-sea fish products haveenabled fishing vessels to begin exploiting these diverse but poorly understood deep-seaecosystems. By far the most widespread activity affecting the biodiversity of these areas onthe high seas is bottom trawl fishing. A number of surveys have shown bottom trawl fishingto be highly destructive to the biodiversity associated with seamounts and deep-sea coralecosystems and concluded that it is likely to pose significant risks to this biodiversity,including the risk of species extinction.The conservation and management of fisheries and the protection of biodiversity within the200 n.m. Exclusive Economic Zones is largely a matter of coastal state responsibility.However, the international community as a whole has a collective responsibility to ensurethe conservation of fish stocks on the high seas and the protection of biodiversity beyondnational jurisdiction.

Num. pages: 7