The following update is from Bunny, our campaign coordinator...
We are now out in the heart of the Northwest Atlantic area and this is where some of the heaviest bottom trawling takes place. We are here because we want to demonstrate how destructive bottom trawling is to deep sea life and why a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling is needed now so that scientists can identify those areas that need protection from bottom trawling. Organisations like NAFO are ill equipped to do anything about it. NAFO has been solely concerned about fish since it started in 1979 and today is no different. Until it starts thinking about looking after the whole neighborhood of the deep sea rather than just one or two residents the problems will continue.
Despite the United Nations and the Convention on Biological Diversity agreeing to urgent action to address destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling, NAFO has done absolutely nothing to respond to this. We are now in the area of NAFO known as 3M, where a lot of shrimp fishing takes place. Today there were so many boats around ploughing the seabed for shrimp. The shrimp fishery developed after the collapse of the groundfish fisheries in this area. According to the FAO (UN Fisheries and Agricultural Organisation) trawl fisheries for shrimp are one of two fisheries that account for over 50% of the total estimated discards globally.
This is the 4th day that we have been in the NAFO area and so far nothing is convincing us that NAFO is up to the job of both managing its fisheries properly as well as looking after the rest of the life that inhabits the deep sea. They need a radical transformation if they are going to be able to think beyond the fish and to manage this area with a view to it being a neighborhood.
