Publication - 5 January, 2004
CBD COP-7 must call on the United Nations General Assembly to pass a Resolution stopping all bottom trawling on the High Seas in order to protect the incredible biological diversity of the deep sea until such time as legally binding regimes exist to effectively conserve and regulate it. Bottom trawlers are huge fishing vessels that drag heavy equipment along the bottom of the sea floor, destroying and scooping up everything in their path. Deep-sea bottom trawling on the High Seas (ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction) by a limited number of fishing vessels is effectively ‘clear-cutting’ these areas, destroying their inhabitants, even before scientists have had an opportunity to explore and explain their roles in our planet’s functioning. The seamounts, cold water coral reefs and other vulnerable habitats that form the focal points of deep-sea biological diversity, are home to highly specialized [organic] communities that are believed to be as species-rich as terrestrial rainforests and tropical coral reefs.