Deep-Sea Bottom Fisheries and the Protection of Seabed Ecosystems: Problems, Progress and Prospects

Abstract

Of the myriad industrial activities currently undertaken in the marine environment, fisheries have progressively emerged as ‘the most widespread source of anthropogenic physical disturbance to global seabed habitats’.1 Demersal fisheries (i.e., those targeting benthic and benthopelagic species, whose core habitats comprise the seabed or areas in very close proximity to it) have been conducted for centuries and are of enduring commercial and nutritional importance to many States. However, as with numerous other fishing practices, technological advances have dramatically transformed demersal fisheries over the past half-century.2 While seabed fisheries were historically concentrated in coastal and inshore locations, the steady depletion of shallow-water stocks has subsequently forced many fishers to pursue offshore and deep-sea alternatives.3 Consequently, the mean depth of global fisheries has expanded four-fold since the mid-1960s,4 as industrial fleets have increasingly targeted new deep-water opportunities, notably those located within areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Although fishing is by no means a new use of the seabed, the poorly regulated proliferation of fisheries into unprecedented depths has nevertheless generated novel environmental and management concerns, with worrying implications for the enduring health and integrity of benthic ecosystems.