SEALIFE
Rock bottom
BOTTOM trawling and dredging has been likened to dragging a bulldozer across a nature reserve, but is anything being done to protect British waters from this unseen damage?
The UN Ocean Conference in June, together with devastating footage of bottom trawling in David Attenborough’s Ocean documentary, led to a surge in optimism that the destructive practices would be banned in areas important to sea life. The fishing methods involve dragging heavy-toothed dredgers or nets across the seabed to scrape up a catch. Other species caught in the trawl are discarded and the practice causes seabed damage which can take years to recover.