Bottom trawling

VIDEO - watch this clip showing how bottom trawling destroys the seabed

Deep sea destroyers
Seamounts and the rich diversity of life they sustain are under threat from one of the world's most destructive fishing practices - bottom trawling.

The commercial fishing industry has developed its boats to extend its unsustainable fishing practices into previously unexploited deep waters.

These deep sea destroyers can clear cut ancient marine habitats within hours - leaving giant trawl scars up to four kilometres long on the ocean floorBottom trawlers drag enormous nets over the seabed. The biggest nets have mouths as wide as the length of a rugby field. Weighted with heavy metal rollers, the nets smash and crush everything in their path as they indiscriminately swallow vast quantities of life.

If the same technique were used on land, it would be like dragging a vast net across the countryside - crushing trees, farms and wildlife in the process - to catch a few cows.

Frightening facts:

Bottom trawling has already extinguished as many as 10,000 species

It destroys ancient deep water coral systems, which provide food and shelter for fish

Around half of all bottom trawler catch is unwanted and thrown back overboard dead or dying.

Despite the evidence, on 16 November 2004 the United Nations General Assembly failed to back a ban on high seas bottom trawling. Instead, the world's governments called for a two-year review of the problem.

We're calling for an immediate halt to deep sea bottom trawling. If it is allowed to continue, we will lose countless more species before they have even been discovered.

Take action now - help defend our oceans