Marine Fishing: bottom trawling and by-catch

How we go about doing fishing? Yes, it’s about fishing. Every year about 20 million tons of fish are caught in nets that are not targeted for. These are ‘by-catches’ (extra, not the target fish), CNN reports via IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

This malpractice of fishing has put more than 100 species of sharks in the list of endangered species by IUCN as sharks are the most predominant of by-catches as they are everywhere. 

By-catches together with bottom trawling are now posing significant threats to entire marine ecosystem of world’s oceans. Bottom trawling or bottom fishing is destroying the natural habitats of marine lives. According to Greenpeace, 

“Bottom trawling involves dragging huge, heavy nets along the sea floor. Large metal plates and rubber wheels attached to these nets move along the bottom and crush nearly everything in their path. All evidence indicates that deep water life forms are very slow to recover from such damage, taking decades to hundreds of years – if they recover at all.” 

The report cites from Greenpeace which estimates that bottom fishing has already extinguished 10,000 species. 

It’s now urgent for international communities to take immediate measures to save the oceans environment and the marine ecosystem. If laws will be enacted fast, the ecosystem will recover from being obliterated forever.

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