For the benefit of Clearwater Seafoods chairman John Risley who last week stated that "there is zero scientific evidence, not one shred of scientific evidence, that these [bottom trawling] fisheries do any damage to the bottom environment whatsoever," this typist has trawled for some photographic evidence showing that bottom trawling does damage the bottom environment. The Norwegian Institute for Marine Research surveyed coral reefs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf which has been bottom trawled since the 30s.
Researchers found dead coral fragments, broken corals in living colonies and trawler scars running through coral beds, all evidence of bottom trawling. They concluded that between 30 and 50 % of coral reefs in Norway were damaged. This institute advises the Nowwegian government which has declared its support for the moratorium on bottom trawling being discussed this week at the United Nations. Canada has refused to support the moratorium.
The photograph above shows dead Lophelia and gorgonians in an area which had been bottom trawled.
Crushed remains of Lophelia skeletons are spread across a barren seabed which has been bottom trawled. A scar stretches across the photograph, the path of a trawl.
