The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) welcomes the agreement adopted by the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) today to protect deep-sea corals and other sensitive ecosystems from high seas bottom fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic.
An "Extraordinary" meeting of the Commission took place in London this week involving NEAFC member countries Norway, Iceland, Russia, the Faroe Islands and Greenland and the European Union.
The NEAFC agreement is designed to implement a United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution adopted in 2006, which called for urgent action to protect deep-sea corals and other vulnerable ecosystems from the impacts of bottom fishing on the high seas. The General Assembly called on NEAFC and other regional fisheries treaty organisations to fully implement the UN resolution by December 2008.
The NEAFC agreement mandates that all high seas bottom fishing will be subject to impact assessments by the end of 2008, and that fishing areas will be closed or fishing prohibited where damage to corals, sponges and other deep sea species cannot be prevented. NEAFC member countries have agreed to an ambitious work schedule over the next several months to complete the assessments and to identify and agree on areas on the high seas that require protection at the annual meeting of NEAFC in November.
"The agreement adopted by NEAFC today is a significant step forward in protecting vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems from the impact of bottom trawling and other deep-sea fishing methods," said Monica Verbeek of DSCC member Seas at Risk. "The real task now for NEAFC is to do the science and establish regulations in November to implement protected areas effectively in line with the UN's December 31 2008 deadline."
"Deep-sea trawlers from Spain, Russia and other nations have been plying the international waters of the Northeast Atlantic for over 40 years, fishing on seamounts and underwater ridge systems for grenadiers, orange roughy, deep-sea sharks and other long lived species which are highly vulnerable to overexploitation," said Matthew Gianni, Political and Policy Advisor to the DSCC. "The agreement, if properly implemented, could serve to provide real protection to deep-sea ecosystems and hopefully will lead to a far more sustainable approach to managing deep-sea fisheries throughout the Northeast Atlantic."
