Is deep sea fishing good for the environment?

Deep-sea fishing not only captures target species, but it can also cause unwanted environmental damage, mainly by exploiting heavy bottom trawls and, to a lesser extent, with bottom longlines. So how can the actions of individuals have such a far-reaching effect? Recreational anglers typically catch only a few ocean fish in an entire day, while commercial industrial scale fishing often uses miles-long gear and captures tons of marine life at a time. The rapid adaptation of industrial fleets to deep-sea fishing allowed access to many deep-sea fish stocks and the subsequent exploitation of several. Deep-sea ecosystems are among the most diverse on Earth, and many species are clustered in large numbers.

However, these species live for a long time, grow slowly and mature or reproduce late, making them more vulnerable to fishing activities and population decline. After rigorous research, these systems grant accreditation to fishing companies that do not overfish and to aquaculture companies that do not pollute the sea through food. To ensure the sustainability of fishing, several incentives have been introduced to divert fishing efforts from coastal fishing zones to deep-sea fish aggregation devices (FAD) and demersal fishing. Maintain and increase the proportion of fish and seafood food products produced in Japan and communicate Japanese food culture to future generations in a way that protects coastal fishing industries.

Last year alone, the New Zealand fleet destroyed up to 3000 tons of deep-sea corals in its relentless trawling. This reduced access to coastal fishing for foreign fishing fleets, forcing them to resort to alternatives on the high seas, including deep sea. Our goal is to substantially reduce the greatest threats to life in the deep sea and to safeguard the long-term health, integrity and resilience of deep-sea ecosystems. New research shows that recreational fishing can sometimes be a big problem, especially for endangered species of marine fish.

Scientists at Sea Around Us have discovered that far more fish have been caught since 1950 than has been officially reported. However, many commercial fisheries operate in these locations, catching deep-sea fish thousands of meters (up to 2000 m) deep. They concluded that deep-sea trawling, a particularly lethal fishing technique that uses industrial-scale gear at depths greater than 400 m (1300 ft), caught and killed nearly 80 percent more fish than experts had previously estimated. Matthew Gianni, co-founder and political and political advisor to the Coalition for the Conservation of the Deep Sea in the Netherlands, is not surprised by the new research.

Bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves dragging heavy nets across the seabed, in an effort to catch fish. At this same meeting, delegates from New Zealand lobbied for a fishing vessel owned by Talley, the Amaltal Apollo, to be removed from the fishing blacklist, after being caught fishing for bottom trawls in a protected area.