Trawler Fishing
Regulations?
Trawling is unsustainable because it just collects everything in the area leaving no individuals of a species to reproduce in that area[6]. Trawling is a big issue that has not been confronted and regulated yet and action needs to be taken by the United Nations (UN) that makes it mandatory to stop trawling. Right now there is the UN Fish Stocks Agreement but it covers only a few things. First the agreement cover mostly migratory and a few endangered species of fish and aims at quote “establishing, among other things, detailed minimum international standards for the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks” It was only signed by 59 states and entities and the following of this agreement is not enforced as well as you think. Already there have been a number of violations that have happened in the countries which agreed to this like Japan and Iceland. The enforcement of these very weak agreements is also a big problem that will contribute to the overfishing of the oceans[7].
Trawling fishing is a method of fishing where a trawler fishing boat drags large nets with heavy chains weighted down by steel plates to drag across the ocean floor to catch shrimp, shellfish, and other fish. The process of dragging the nets across the ocean floor is similar to the process of clear cutting forests. Dragging the nets rakes up the ocean floor. and decimates all of the coral, bottom fish, and other aquatic life. This leaves the ocean floor a barren landscape and destroys coral reefs that had taken thousands of years to form[6].
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Sterling Guy