The Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish) is the UK's only cross industry seafood body and is a non departmental public body sponsored by the four UK Government fisheries departments and funded by a levy on seafood. It works closely with all sector of the seafood industry and with environmental campaign groups such as the World Wildlife Trust and the Marine Stewardship Council. They believe that in any debate on bottom trawling it is important to make a distinction between fisheries based in the inshore and deep water environments respectively. Continental shelf areas around the world have been trawled with varying degrees of intensity for centuries whereas many deep sea areas are virtually pristine and the challenge they face is to create a sustainable future for seafood supplies whilst ensuring appropriate protection for all species existing in these areas. Concerns about the impact of beam trawls and dredges are often based on the assertion that they are very damaging to the seabed and wreck one area then move to another. Seafish believe that each of these methods is only used on specific types of seabed.
In the pristine deep-sea environment, it is essential to protect unspoilt areas such as seamounts and one way in which the industry is working to achieve this with Governments is through the designation of Marine Protected Areas alongside areas which can be fished to respond to the growing market demand for sustainable, high quality fish products. The impacts of active gears used for bottom trawling vary widely, active gears can impact on the physical nature of the seabed and the communities of species that grow or live on it. The extent of these impacts is related to the natures of the seabed and the energy levels that normally affect it e.g. in relatively shallow areas of ¡®clean¡¯ ground where tidal currents or wave action are strong, fishing impacts may be very similar to these natural disturbances. On more rocky 'hard' grounds that may also provide more sheltered conditions, seabed communities become more complex and more vulnerable to disturbance from towed fishing gears. The major impacts occur when the seabed is first exposed to towed gears. Seafish state that there is also the assumption that bottom trawling wrecks one area and then moves on to another area, however in South West England and the Southern North Sea the boats work the same grounds, year after year, and the grounds have remained productive, otherwise the boats would not return time after time. |