Earth Protect Blog

I am completely fascinated by this recent news story on CNN.com. On September 10, 2010, an international team of marine biologists discovered a new, never-before-seen species of fish living deep in the Pacific Ocean. The fish, a pure white species of snailfish, was discovered living 4 and ½ miles below the surface of the water; a depth that was previously thought to be devoid of fish. This news is just amazing to me. Isn’t the snailfish a beautiful creature, with its almost angelic appearance? How marvelous that we have the ability to explore the ocean, with its creatures so rare and exotic that they appear to dwell on a different planet. 

Almost adjacently, I discovered this article from Desdemona Despair, which reveals that bottom trawling is more damaging to the sea floor than all other human activities combined. My heart sank a little. To know that millions of underwater species, such as the lovely snailfish, are being killed by bottom trawling, well that is just downright depressing to me. For those who don’t know, bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves towing a net, known as a trawl net, across the sea floor. This net is commonly the size of a football field. The sea floor is scraped with a large heavy blade or plate, and the scraped contents are then deposited into the net. The front of this net is weighed down with heavy weights called rockhoppers, which crush everything that goes underneath the net rather than in it. Cod, shrimp, squid, octopus, crabs, and flatfish are among the species that are fished with trawl nets. However, there is no way for these species to be specifically targeted. Instead, entire marine life habitats are deposited into the net. Then, at the surface, the contents are sorted, and the desirable commercial species are retained. Trawling has long been a controversial method because it is known to cause damage by shattering coral, removing seaweed, and trapping other species such as sea turtles and sea lions. The process of sea trawling has been compared to that of clear-cutting a rainforest. Some species, such as the orange roughy, have been fished with trawl nets nearly to the point of extinction.
However, this is the first time that I have come across this startling statistic: Bottom trawling is more damaging to the sea floor than all other human activities combined. Angela Benn of the National Oceanography Centre, who led the revealing new study, stated that bottom trawling is at least ten times more damaging than any other human activity that was assessed. Yikes. Currently, bottom trawling is completed at a depth of about 3,000 to 13,000 feet. But as we deplete our resources in more shallow marine environments, we venture to deeper depths. This puts many species, perhaps even marine species that we have not yet discovered and identified, at risk. The deep seafloor covers about 60% of the earth’s surface, but little of it has been explored and studied. It has even been deemed “the earth’s last frontier of discovery.” This is because, well, it is the deep seafloor. It is neither easy to access nor easy to reach. At a depth of 4 and ½ miles, where the snailfish lives, the pressure is 10,000 pounds per square inch, and it is pitch black because sunlight just does not reach it. Technology is currently advancing to allow us to explore more of this area. But as this technology advances, so does the risk of even more damage to the deep seafloor. If you would hate to see entire species of underwater creatures be wiped out by bottom trawling, as I would, there are things you can do to help oppose and fight trawling. Check out some of these resources below. And help save the beautiful snailfish, along with thousands of other marine species.