Bottom Trawling Net on Seabed

The deep sea is the last undiscovered frontier on the planet. Once thought to be void of life, scientists now estimate between 500,000 to 100,000,000 species live in the deep sea, with many of these species situated around seamounts (underwater mountains). Bottom trawling is destroying unique and fragile deep sea life in an effort to catch what amounts to very few fish. Scientists now consider bottom trawling to be the biggest threat to deep sea life and are warning of the extinction of creatures virtually unknown to science and whole habitats being wiped out. Over 1000 scientists from 60 countries, issued a statement in December calling for a global moratorium on high seas bottom trawling.