Bering Sea: 180,000 Sq Miles Made Off Limits to Bottom Trawling

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced recently nearly 180,000 square miles of the Bering Sea will be closed to bottom trawling to protect important seafloor habitats and marine life. This will take effect August 25, 2008.

This ban freezes the current area, or "footprint," where trawling already occurs in the Bering Sea and prevents trawlers from expanding into previously untrawled areas.

A northern boundary for trawling in the Bering Sea is established to protect the marine life and ecosystems of the northern Bering Sea and Arctic from the impacts of bottom trawling. Bottom trawling employs huge nets that are dragged across the seafloor, damaging corals, sponges and other seafloor life in a technological race to fish harder and longer.

"The Bering Sea is among the most productive and spectacular ocean ecosystems in the world," said Jon Warrenchuk, Ocean Scientist for Oceana.

"Considering the current and future impacts of climate change, these regulations are an important step towards giving our oceans and fisheries the best chance for survival."

The Bering Sea is home to 26 species of marine mammals. These include the critically endangered northern right whale; millions of seabirds hailing from all seven continents; more than 450 species of fish; and some of the world's largest submarine canyons.

Each year blue, humpback, gray and bowhead whales travel through the Bering Sea. The endangered spectacled eiders calls the northern Bering Sea shelf home and the entire population of these large seabirds coming to the Bering Sea each winter to feed on the clams and invertebrates that live in and on the seafloor. The Pacific walrus enjoys the same food source.

The National Academy of Sciences states fishing boats that trawl on the bottom destroy important seafloor habitat, decimating corals, sponges and other sensitive areas. Many of these seafloor animals and habitat areas can take centuries to recover, if they recover at all.

"Bottom trawling is an outdated and wasteful way to try and catch fish," said Jon Warrenchuk, Ocean Scientist with Oceana.

"This ecosystem is already being figuratively hammered by climate change. It doesn't need to be literally hammered by bottom trawls."

"This is the latest in a series of actions that show the tide is turning in ocean management away from managing for collapse and towards a science-based, ecosystem-focused approach to protect our oceans and sustainable fisheries," said Warrenchuk.

The final regulation to close an estimated 178,145 square miles of the Bering Sea to bottom trawling was released in the Federal Register on Friday, July 25 and is available here.