The Grand Banks is an area where there is a lot of nutrient mixing in the water column and this supports an great abundance of life. Seamounts like the Grand Banks are biodiversity hot spots (meaning they are home to a very high number of different species compared to other environments). As a Zoologist, I know that it is incredibly important that we protect areas rich in diversity since this is the key to a healthy planet. For those of you wanting to know what kind of things are down there I will try to tell you as best I can. The most important types of animals living on seamounts include deep water corals and sponges, which provide safe and bountiful homes for many other species like crabs, mussels and deep water fish. Scientists believe that there is a myriad of life (perhaps as much as 100 million species) existing in these deep water ecosystems, which is still unknown.

I am always fascinated by marine biology but I find the deep sea stuff the most interesting because the foundation of life down there is not the sunshine as it is up here at the surface and on land. The bottom of the food chain involves creatures (like bacteria) which can make all their food from chemicals instead of needing sunlight. I am ashamed that my own species is capable of destroying things like this on such a massive scale. We are most probably causing the extinction of species we have never even seen and we have no idea what kind of impact that will have on nature. Bottom trawling wreaks havoc on the ocean floor, catches much more than the targeted fish species and frequently occurs in areas where there is limited biological understanding of the species being caught, or the ecosystems in which they live.

The current fisheries management is simply inadequate for the protection of this important marine habitat. Bottom trawling is the most environmentally damaging form of fishing on the planet but it is still legal on the Grand Banks (and other areas of the world). We need the UN to agree to a moratorium on bottom trawling in the high seas when it meets next year and we need help! Please take part in our new cyberaction by sending an e.mail to Fisheries and Environment Ministers, and stay updated on the campaign by registering as a cyberactivist.

We're in Halifax as of tomorrow morning and we return to the Grand Banks on Monday to find out who is doing what out there. I can't tell you much else so you will have to wait and see.

L.

As I was writing this, Leo the second mate called to tell me there was a whale off the starboard side of the ship. Tara and I ran from the campaign office through the bridge and out to the wing to see a huge tail submerge into a pool of white froth. Fantastic! I will never get tired of seeing whales even if it is only just as a puff of diffused spray in the air.