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08 October 2006 Australia spearheads seabed trawling ban [Keyword: trawling ]
A Campaign led by Australia has received a boost as the US agreed to support a moratorium on fishers trawling their nets deep on the ocean floor in international waters.
The US's shift in position came on the eve of a United Nations debate aimed at banning the practice in unregulated waters.
Countries control fishing within their waters, but 64 per cent of the world's oceans are unregulated, allowing commercial fishing fleets to use new technology to trawl up to one kilometre deep using giant, weighted nets.
Last month the Australian Government announced it supported a timetable for banning the deep sea trawling where it was proven to be destructive to ecosystems.
Under the proposal, nations would have until next July to regulate fishing in the seas under their control, and regional fisheries management organisations would have until the end of the next year to implement agreements in the high seas. If there was no regional agreement in place or being developed, bottom trawling would be banned.
Australia has already moved to protect sensitive undersea mountains caused by volcanic activity in Australian waters - a stand applauded by environmental groups including Greenpeace and the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, and which is supported by New Zealand and the tiny island nation of Palau.
More support came from the actor Sigourney Weaver, who introduced herself at a UN news conference in New York as "a citizen of the world, an earthling", who had dreamed of becoming a marine biologist "but the maths was beyond me".
Bottom trawling was devastating the ocean's last frontier, she said. "The high seas belong to no single country, and they certainly do not belong to these owners of large industrial fishing corporations … These corporations are raping these oceans beyond sight and beyond regulation."
Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, said a ban on fishing the deep ocean floor might be necessary because the marine lifeforms there grew extremely slowly and were highly vulnerable to being wiped out by overfishing.
"We know very little about the deep seas, but what we do know suggests it is the largest, most biologically rich place on this Earth," Dr Pikitch said.
"The threat is serious; the need for action is urgent."
Australia's UN ambassador, Robert Hill, said the global picture of conservation of the marine environment was dismal.
New Zealand supports the Australian initiative, but wants to make an exception for areas while they are being studied for a regional agreement.
Support for a ban on deep ocean trawling is growing, with the European Commission, Brazil, Chile, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, and most Pacific island nations also opposing it.
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01 June 2006: No Consensus for Moratorium on Bottom Trawling
Several environmental groups are demanding an international moratorium on bottom trawling, a fishing technique that destroys seabed ecosystems. But the proposal did not win consensus amongst the delegates taking part in a UN conference on fish stocks. |
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23 October 2005: Bottom trawling delivers ‘Roughy Justice’
It costs about the same as smoked salmon and is served up at the country's smartest restaurants. But although Orange Roughy may seem a luxurious treat for the well-heeled, bringing it to the table comes at a terrible price. |
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16 August 2005: Greenpeace continues trawling moratorium campaign
Greenpeace activists pulled into port in their rainbow-coloured boat yesterday, bearing what they say is compelling video evidence of how trawling is wiping out fish stocks and devastating marine life. They say that the controversial fishing method is harming the marine ecosystem.
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26 July 2005: NAFO should adopt trawling moratorium - Greenpeace
The international agency that manages the fishery on the high seas has done such a miserable job of protecting fish stocks that it needs to introduce a moratorium on the controversial practice of trawling, according to a report released yesterday. Greenpeace will ask the Canadian government to impose a temporary ban on the disputed fishing method, claiming it has depleted fish stocks... |
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18 November 2004: Ban high seas bottom trawling: UN
The UN General Assembly today urged nations to consider temporary bans on high seas bottom trawling, but that did not go far enough for scientists and some countries that had sought an immediate global moratorium on the destructive fishing practice. Environmental groups had urged the General Assembly to approve stronger language... |
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06 October 2004: Conservationists appeal for deep sea trawling ban
Environmentalists appealed on Tuesday for the United Nations to stop a handful of the world's fishing nations ravaging ocean beds to put delicacies on the plates of the rich. Kelly Rigg of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) said deep sea bottom trawling destroyed whole marine communities for the sake of catching a few fish which fetched premium prices in the world's top restaurants. |
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27 September 2004: Groups lash strategy on bottom trawling
The Government has unveiled a strategy, denounced as weak by Greenpeace, to address the environmental threat from bottom trawling. As part of this New Zealand will take its concerns about the practice to the United Nations and its regional partners. |
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10 March 2004: Thousands call for ban on Pair Trawling
More than 40,000 people have signed a Westcountry petition to put an end to dolphin slaughter by banning bass pair trawling. Cornish fishermen Sam Lambourn, chairman of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation and president of the National Federation of Fishermen, last night said a ban was the only way forward. |
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11 February 2004: Bass Pair Trawling must stop now
Not all campaigners are convinced the horrifying truth spelt out in the latest find of dead dolphins will make a difference. The recent recommendation of the Commons committee chaired by Falmouth and Camborne Labour MP Candy Atherton suggested waiting two years to see if bycatch numbers fall. After two years, it would then consider closing the fishery. |
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