Publication - November 16, 2004
Greenpeace calls upon the UN to put words to action and ban bottom trawling: the most destructive fishing practice in the world.
Download document
Executive summary: On the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Greenpeace, speaking on behalf of a coalition of environmentalists that represent tens of millions of people, was invited to address the General Assembly – the first time the environment group has been allowed to speak at such a session.Environmentalists and scientists have been campaigning to ensure the anniversary was marked with one of the most significant steps to protect the rich life of the deep oceans – a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling.High seas bottom trawling literally ploughs up the ocean floor for relatively few fish and the fleets often target seamounts – the least explored mountains on the planet, that rise more than a 1,000 metres from the ocean floor. Seamounts are teeming with deep sea life, some of which is undiscovered by science and much is unique to individual seamounts.
Num. pages: 5