As the third United Nations Ocean Conference begins in Nice, leading marine scientists are urging governments to deliver on long-standing commitments to protect deep-sea ecosystems, especially seamounts, from destructive bottom trawling

Seamounts – underwater mountains that serve as vital habitats for whales, sharks and countless marine species – are being ravaged by bottom trawling, a practice that scientists say should have ended nearly two decades ago.

Despite a 2006 UN General Assembly resolution calling for the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, implementation remains inadequate.