Vulnerable Marine Areas and High Seas Bottom Trawling

Deep-sea bottom trawl fishing vessels drag nets with steel plates and heavy rollers across the seabed, damaging cold water coral such as lophelia and other vulnerable marine ecosystems. The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an alliance of over 50 NGOs, is working to protect seamounts, cold-water corals and vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems.

The 2006 UNGA Resolution on Sustainable Fisheries (local copy here) resolution 61-105 requires States to adopt and implement measures to:

1. Assess the impacts of bottom fishing on impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), and stop high seas bottom fishing in the area unless it can be shown that the activities of each individual bottom fishing vessel can be managed in a way that prevents significant adverse impacts from occurring (para 83 A);
2. Close areas known to or likely to contain vulnerable marine ecosystems, (including but not limited to seamounts, deep sea corals and hydrothermal vents) to bottom fishing until conservation and management measures are in place to ensure that no significant adverse effects occur to such ecosystems (para  83 C) and
3. Implement measures to ensure their vessels to stop fishing when they encounter vulnerable marine ecosystems  (para 83 D).

South Pacific RFMO

In Reñaca, Chile in May, participants at the third meeting met to negotiate the formation of a new South Pacific regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO) agreed important Interim Measures covering pelagic fisheries, bottom fisheries, and data sharing and collection.

To protect vulnerable marine ecosystems such as cold water corals and sponge fields from damage from bottom trawling, the landmark interim measures introduce environmental impact assessments before fishing in the high seas and precautionary protection measures. Locator monitoring systems and observers will be required on every bottom trawling vessel

The fourth meeting was held in Noumea on September 10-14. The report is now available. As was noted in DSCC's concluding press release, with the South Pacific implementing the 2006 UN General Assembly Resolution on deep-sea ecosystems, this highlighted the need to implement UNGA Resolution 61/105 in other RFMOs.

NAFO

NAFO's Fisheries Commission last year closed four seamounts to demersal fishing until 2010:

• Orphan Knoll,
• Corner Seamounts,
• Newfoundland Seamounts,
• New England Seamounts.

NAFO is proceeding with reforms, including amending its constitution to incorporate that ecosystem approach and merging the General Council and Fisheries Commission and merging its two Committees, STACFAC and STACTIC, to leave the latter in existence.

In the North West Atlantic, NAFO's Fisheries Commission met in Lisbon, Portugal on 24-28 September and as the DSCC noted, failed to reach agreement on a proposal submitted by the EC and the issue is to be discussed in an extraordinary session in May.