Worldwide action to protect sensitive marine life and habitats from destructive deep sea trawling could be a step closer thanks to UK pressure.
Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw, speaking in New York this week during United Nations General Assembly discussions on destructive fisheries practices, said that there was "a very real prospect" of effective action on bottom trawling after several countries signalled their support.
Undersea mountains, coral reefs and creatures living on the sea bed are under serious threat from bottom trawlers which drag nets across the ocean floor, causing irreparable damage to sensitive ecosystems, and which also decimate the fisheries themselves.
Welcoming support within the European Union for the UK's position, Mr Bradshaw said:
"We have an opportunity to make an historic agreement if the momentum created by the UK and others can be kept up.
"I want to see the end of destructive deep sea bottom trawling. We should stop this kind of fishing which threatens seamounts, cold water corals, hydrothermal vents and other vulnerable ecosystems.
"Under current practices ecosystems that have taken thousands of years to develop can be destroyed in minutes. It would never be tolerated on land where everybody can see it.
"Scientific evidence shows the damage that is being done, and we need international cooperation to stop this as a matter of urgency."
Mr Bradshaw wants international regulators called Regional Fisheries Management Organisations to take urgent action, and for areas of the sea not protected by them to have similar bodies set up to regulate deep sea bottom trawling.
"However, I want strong arrangements that will prevent damage and destruction while these bodies are being set up. The approach we are taking is also about building sustainable high seas fisheries."
This week is the first stage in discussions which will conclude at the UN in November.
