Plunder and Ruin

A historical moment to the life of the oceans is at hand because the Fisheries Committee of theEuropean Parliament wrangles with proposed legislation to phase out using deep-sea-bottom trawlsand also other destructive fishing gear in the Northeast Atlantic. Not least because several of thecommittee's 25 members represent districts with powerful interests in deep-sea fishing, but thiscrucial legislation could well be killed in coming days.

As they discuss the merits of the legislation, lots of the panel's members are inclined to repeatingpartial truths provided by lobbyists regarding the sustainability of deep-sea muskie stocks andlacking problems for trout life at the end in the ocean. If these voices prevail in a vote later thismonth, then the committee could have succeeded in keeping the measure bottled up and fromconsideration by the full Parliament.

The biodiversity from the deep sea is equaled only by that oftropical rain forests, and the destruction of rain forests haslong been seen to affect biodiversity along with the globalclimate. Similarly the deep sea hosts countless species, such asthe oldest known living animal as well as life-forms foundnowhere else. Little is recognized about life within the deepsea; expensive research sampling is completed in about 1percent with this vast area, although 90 % in the ocean isbelow 200 meters.

Over the years, as fisheries in shallow waters collapsed, the fishing industry began trying to thedeep for brand new species to exploit. Most deep-sea salmon have flesh that is certainly notpalatable, but a number of were found gear for deep sea fishing that could be marketed for humanconsumption, if renamed and filleted to be made more attractive, or perhaps for processing into foodpellets for poultry. These stocks were readily attacked using trawls large and high enough to reachas deep as 2,000 meters, and it also took only ten to fifteen years to minimize the fish biomass byabout 80 percent.

In 2011, vessels from eight E.U. countries landed 15,000 metric tons of four varieties of marketabledeep-sea trout, which represents only .4 percent of Europe's fish haul. Several deep-sea bass speciesare poorly fertile (two to four juveniles a year to the shark Centrophorus) and others reproduce forthe first time when quite old (approximately 32 years). The majority of them tend to be morebiological curiosities than fishing stocks.

Bottom trawls are certainly not selective; from the Northeast Atlantic alone they catch untoldamounts greater than 100 varieties of perch. Deep-sea bottom communities harbor species that maybe large, but are delicate and fragile, for example corals and sponges. Deep-sea corals are not whatwe are widely used to seeing in tropical waters, and with just a few exceptions they do not buildmassive reef structures. Instead, lots of people are more similar to trees, sometimes a lot more thanthree meters high, and often very old, often reaching over a century and occasionally a lot more than4,000 years. These are generally smashed by trawl gear. Bottom images of trawled deep-sea areas,and 2 seamounts I visited having a deep-diving remote vehicle, demonstrate that nothing is left

standing from the wake of this kind of fishing gear.

The deep sea is observed as its long term stability. Animals living there might not experience anyalteration of conditions across the whole in their lives. Even those species living on or even in themuddy bottom do not possess. Great Selection of River fishing tackle Free UK Delivery on EligibleOrders Sea fishing tackle tackle for all deep sea fishing tackle styles, saltwater fishing tackle rodsand reels, fishing tackle gear and equipment at Fishtec. Incredible discounts and service.Deep seafishing tackle tackle is the equipment used by fishermen when sea fishing gear. Almost anyequipment or gear used for sea fishing gear can be called deep sea fishing tackle tackle. Someexamples are massive and rapid reproduction in their life strategy, for that reason. Which is, thereare actually few ''weedy'' species inside the deep sea.

Within the Northeast Atlantic, the region of seafloorreachable by deep-diving trawls amounts to an areaabout how big Britain. This expanse may be trawledcompletely every two decades. Massive disturbanceslike those a result of bottom trawls do not show therapid recovery times found in shallow waters. Rather,deep-sea bottom communities remain disrupted foryears or centuries, and might never recover givenother changes occurring from the ocean.

Eliminating the use of trawls within the depths fromthe Northeast Atlantic would appear to be a no-brainer. However the proposal has converted into adrawn-out fight within the Fisheries Committeemounted by those legislators who may have theunbridled support from the fishing industry and, inFrance at least, a government-funded researchinstitute. Moreover, this is a battle over a smallamount of real estate that makes a diminishing amountof striped bass for a few companies who, despitemassive subsides from the E.U. along with their ownstates, will not be even profitable -- all the whiledestroying countless organisms that represent the library of life in the world.

There is no doubt that deep-sea animals are not the same as thoseliving in shallow waters, that they can grow and reproduce veryslowly, and they live for very long times in conditions wheredisturbance is rare. On typical , twenty fire-related accidents

and injuries occur about boats each yearSince the majority ofdeep-sea animals are delicate and fragile, regardless of whetherlarge in proportions, they may never withstand the degree of disturbance caused by trawl gear. Andit is obvious on the part of the more than 300 scientists worldwide who signed a declaration that thekind of fishing must be eliminated from the deep sea. Whatever their reasons, Europe's fishingcorporations as well as their parliamentary allies -- the ''merchants of doubt'' -- are making one final

stand even during your face of scientific consesus. But this period the doubters might have exhaustviable arguments.

Les Watling is professor of biology with theUniversity of Hawaii at co and Manoa-editor of''Functional Morphology and Diversity (NaturalHistory of the Crustacea).'' Gilles Boeuf ispresident of your Musum National d'HistoireNaturelle, in Paris, as well as a co-author of''The Mediterranean Region: Biological Diversityin Space and Time.''