Complexity Digest 2002.51 - 14.04

23-Dec-2002

Sea-Floor Ecosystems: Trawling's a Drag for Marine Life, Say Studies Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: Trawlers are catching more than fish these days. The boats are also capturing the attention of marine scientists, conservationists, and fisheries managers, (...) . Critics say boats dragging heavy nets across the sea floor kill nontarget species such as corals and harm even commercially valuable populations by flattening habitat (Science, 18 December 1998, p. ¡K). But many fishers have argued that the impacts are short lived and that "tilling" the sea floor can augment food supplies for certain prized table fish. That idea took a battering here.