Victory in the South Pacific

Limits set on high seas bottom trawling

Posted by Andrew Sharpless (Guest Contributor) at 3:41 PM on 09 May 2007

Read more about: oceans | fishing | Australia | Antarctica

More than 20 nations recently met in Chile to set up a regulatory body to watch over a huge swath of ocean. The meeting, which was targeted by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and included staff from Oceana's South American office, also netted (no pun intended) a landmark agreement that reels in high seas bottom trawling fleets. New regulations set to take effect next September will severely limit the destructive fishing method in waters from Australia to South America and from the Equator to the Antarctica.

Destructive trawls and dredges used for commercial fishing have bulldozed entire seafloor environments. Today's decision is a major leap in the right direction toward protecting our oceans.

For story: Victory in the South Pacific
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Damage Transfer Prevention ?

Here in Europe we've now had decades of efforts to conserve fish stocks within our waters,

to little intended effect, as various stocks head for total collapse,

but with at least one string of unintended consequences,

namely that we're sending factory ships down to W. African coasts and hoovering their stocks,
even their inshore stocks in some cases,
in order to maintain EU catches.

The fishing communities there are being made destitute as stocks decline,
with a rising number of them risking their lives on the 600 mile crossing to the Canary Islands, from whence they become immigrants to Europe,
which in turn raises the opportunities for nazi groups' propaganda and occaisional attrocities.

So my question is this - will the new organization for the S Pacific constrain the nations forgoing catches from simply moving their fleets elsewhere ?

Regards,

Billhook

by Billhook at 4:08 PM on 09 May 2007

biodiversity

if my wife were here, i'd have the stats, but i think the south pacific holds a majority of the biodiversity of the worlds marine life. i think this is amazingly good news.

by zackk at 5:16 PM on 09 May 2007

Very good news

Our population passed the point of hunting for sustenance long ago. Carefully regulated sustainable hunting is still allowed for leisure but nobody argues that we try to sustainably hunt for sustenance anymore. The same is now true for the oceans.

The cost of fish will rise but with 3 billion more of us on the way that was inevitable. Will domesticated fish and fish farms try to take up the slack and if so, what kind of environmental damage can we expect from them?

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 6:28 AM on 10 May 2007

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