Impacts of Bottom Trawling

Bottom trawling:  the high cost of cheap seafood

Bottom trawling is an incredibly destructive practice with devastating impacts on marine habitats and species.  ASOC and its partners in the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition support a worldwide moratorium on the practice.  Click here for a slideshow showing the dramatic damage from trawling, and here for an overview of facts on bottom trawling (coming soon).

 Trawling destroys habitat and displaces species.

 Groupers were abundant on deep-sea Oculina coral reefs off Florida's Atlantic Coast before trawling began (below left); legal and illegal trawling has nearly eliminated the corals and large fishes in this ecosystem (below right).

Photo credit:  Dr. R. Grant Gilmore, Dynamac Corporation

Photo credit:  Lance Horn, National Undersea Research Center/University of North Carolina at Wilmington

The impact of trawling is so severe that it can be seen in satellite images. 

Sediment trails in the Gulf of Mexico.  One sediment trail can be traced for 27 km. Assuming a standard trawling speed of 2.5 knots, sediment from this trawl is visibly persistent for nearly 6 hours. Water depth <20m.  Photo credit: Sky Truth (www.skytruth.org). What can YOU do?  *SUPPORT efforts to ban bottom trawling nationally and internationally. *AVOID purchasing fish species typically caught using bottom trawling.  Download the Blue Ocean Institute Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood.

Thanks to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (www.savethehighseas.org) and Sky Truth (www.skytruth.org), ASOC compiled a slideshow showing the severity of bottom trawling.  View it below to see the true effects of trawling.