| The term ‘bottom trawling’ or ‘dragging’ can be used to describe either a gear type or the practice of towing or dragging a trawl net, pelagic or otherwise, in continuous or occasional contact with the bottom of the sea. Bottom trawling is intended to catch fish and other target species found near the ocean floor but can also trap everything moveable and breakable in its path, including sponges, corals and countless other non-target species. The biggest nets have been described as being as wide as the length of a rugby field. The nets are usually weighted with heavy metal rollers, which cause them to damage and destroy everything in their path as they indiscriminately swallow vast quantities of life.
Bottom trawling can do irreversible damage not only to benthic ecosystems and habitats located along parts of continental shelves and associated deep canyons, seamounts and ocean ridge systems, but also to populations of fish species. It has been described by conservationists as “one of the world’s most destructive fishing practices”. |