01 May 2005
Deep sea bottom trawling uses large, heavy gear that is designed to drag, across the sea bed, causing massive collateral damage. Habitats, such as ancient corals, some of them thousands of years old, which provide shelter for hundreds of other unique species, are also destroyed by these fishing activities. Overall, they catch tens of thousands of tonnes of species along with those being targeted, which are then dumped dead or dying back into the sea. Because of the slow growth of many of these deep sea fish (which may be older than your great-grandmother when you eat them), and because good breeding years may only occur once every decade or less, it will take centuries for nature to repair the damage already done.
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