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I watched the animation and it is quite clever... I have the slogan 'blame Canada' going through my head... Whoever made it is very skilled! Kepp up the great work out there!

in the articles on this website regarding the countries that _do_ support the ban of trawling, they all state their disapproval of "unregulated trawling". can anybody tell me why there is this destinction? is there _regulated_ trawling, and is that practise subsequently supported by these countries careful to make the distinction (i.e. US and Australia)??

Not blaming Canada and Spain because of this decision they took would be soo selfish and insensitive... This world is not depending on the two countries' judgement... The world belongs to us!

Unregulated bottom trawling is one of the letters of "IUU" -or pirate- fishing. It is not the I for illegal, but one of the U's (the other one is unreported). Together these type of fishing account for a huge array of unsustainble, destructive, thieving and generally bad fishing practices which undermine the management and sustainability of the legal, regulated and reported fishing that takes place.

Bottom trawling on the high seas is largely unregulated, meaning that there are no laws in place to govern how much fish is being taken, where it is being fished, or what is being destroyed in the process. The only areas of high seas where it is regulated at all are within the 5 "regional fisheries management organisations" that have the authority to manage bottom trawling within their designated areas: North Atlantic (NAFO) North East Atlantic (NEAFC), the Southern Ocean (CCAMLR) South-east Atlantic (SEAFO) and the Mediterranean (GFCM) - and even then this only applies to vessels that belong to member countries of those organisations.

So, around 3/4 of our seas and oceans are not regulated by any one country (the high seas) and of the high seas, 3/4 again is not regulated by one of the RFMOs listed above. Countries like the US and Australia are calling for a moratorium in those areas. Greenpeace believes that this emergency measure - a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling - should also cover RFMOs and vessels of countries that are not RFMO members.

The US and Australia are also calling on those 5 RFMOs to develop strong conservation and management measures within those RFMOs in accordance with the ecosystem and precautionary approaches. This is a positive step, however to truly follow the precautionary principle, the moratorium should also apply to RFMOs until such time as they put in place the management measures needed to regulate bottom trawling to ensure it is not destroying deep sea life such as seamounts and other vulnerable ecosystems.