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Unwanted bycatch, including a starfish, far outweighs the target catch of orange roughy in a deep sea trawl from international waters in the Tasman Sea. Greenpeace along with more than a thousand scientists are supporting 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.
Enlarge ImageSeveral delegations blocked moves to prohibit high seas bottom trawling - the world's most destructive fishing practice - under pressure from fisheries ministries in their countries. Iceland and Japan were particularly vocal in opposition. The measure was replaced with a weak recommendation that nations "consider" an interim prohibition.
These discussions were all taking place at this week's UN meeting in New York which had the power to recommend an immediate halt on bottom trawling to the UN General Assembly. Greenpeace members were out in force distributing footage from the Rainbow Warrior showing the devastating effects of bottom trawling and ensuring that the opinions of our cyberactivists were visible even in the corridors.
It's not all bad though - governments from virtually every region of the world expressed support for a prohibition on bottom trawling. Particularly strong calls for action to halt bottom trawling were made by Norway, Thailand, Costa Rica, the Republic of Palau, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Of course, this is not the last you've heard on bottom trawling, we will be continuing our defence of the millions of rare, protected and undiscovered species in the deep sea, so stay tuned ...
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