| GREENPEACE | Defending the Deep : Episode III : Esperanza / NORTH WEST ATLANTIC 2005: Shocked and Disturbed

June 01, 2004

Shocked and Disturbed

An unidentified fisherman holding a piece of paragorgia coral. Paragoria can grow two storeys high with trunks the size of lamp posts and provide the habitat for a variety of deep sea creatures. No photos have ever been taken of this species of paragorgia alive in it's natural environment. (C) NIWA

An unidentified fisherman holding a piece of paragorgia coral. (C) NIWA

Hi, Tamsin here, communications officer onboard the Rainbow Warrior. Dave is having a day off from weblogging [But I'm still here editing! - Dave].

I just wanted to share a little of my day with you. After I finished cleaning the heads (toilets), I sat down in the mess (dining room) and began trawling through heaps of scientific reports concerning the effects of bottom trawl fisheries on deep sea life, and in particular seamounts - the mountains that rise up from the sea floor.

What I found in these reports made me want to jump into a submersible, and get down to the seamounts, get a load of footage, and beam it right here to the weblog.

Unfortunately for me, I can't! So I just have to make do with words beamed from the Rainbow Warrior, thanks for having the day off today, Dave.

Here's what got me fired up today:

'98% of the ocean's species live on or are associated with the sea floor and over 50% of the world's corals live in the deep sea.' However... 'a single 13-18m wide trawl can take a metric tonne of coral.'

That struck me as a hell of a lot of coral, what's more I read further on that once coral has been trawled it might not recover at all. I am disturbed by this because I know how much coral is the life support system of the ocean.

'The total value of deep sea bottom trawling in the world is USD$400 million', the total global fisheries value in the world is... wait for it... USD$75 billion. I am struck by the irony of how much havoc is being caused by bottom trawling for such a small economic return.

'Bottom trawl fishing poses a major threat to the biodiversity of vulnerable deep sea habitats and ecosystems, and high seas bottom trawl fishing has often led to the serial or sequential depletion of targeted deep-sea fish stocks.'

Yikes.

I stopped reading at 5.30pm, went up to the bridge and watched one of our friendly albatross cruise around the ship. What a life, what a wing span, what grace. Really wish you could be here with me.