ElasmOcean opposes bottom trawling - this is not new.
The damage to the seabed, the dolly rope issue of plastic threads in the ocean, the aimless and unselective removal of all marine life - three powerful arguments on our side.
There is a fourth, very powerful argument: bottom trawling is a significant contributor to climate change!
Yes, we are, of course, familiar with the "idyllic" shrimp cutters of the German North Sea, their fishing trips with beautiful home ports like Greetsiel or Cuxhaven. Unsuspecting tourists love this "traditional fishery" and bite with pleasure into the shrimp roll from the fish stall next door. Traditions that we must thoroughly reconsider.
A recent study by Utah State University in Logan (USA) proves that up to 370 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) enter the atmosphere as a result of global bottom trawling. For context: that is about half of what global aviation emits.
The seabed is the largest carbon sink on our planet. Bottom trawls permanently churn it up. About twice as much carbon is stored in the seabed as in terrestrial soils. Nearshore shelf seas like the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, with their muddy sediments, make up less than ten per cent of the ocean surface area, yet they store almost 90 per cent of the carbon sequestered annually. The release results in more than half (55-60%, indeed 370 million tonnes) of this carbon entering the atmosphere as CO2 within seven to nine years. The remainder remains in the seawater, causing rapid acidification as carbonic acid. Both have drastic consequences for the ocean and for humanity.
Bottom trawling is more detrimental to the climate than any other fishing technique. From our perspective, there is only one acceptable solution: this fishing technique must be abolished.
We are sometimes accused of being radical in our uncompromising stance. What are the alternatives? A replaceable fishing technique that is more damaging to the climate than any other, results in up to 90% bycatch, and destroys the seabed - severely in shallow areas, and almost irreversibly in the deep sea. Or the stubborn adherence to this replaceable (!) fishing technique despite knowing these facts. Which is more radical?
We are confident that we have found the correct answer here.
Source:
Atwood et al, Atmospheric CO2 emissions and ocean acidification from bottom-trawling, 2023, https://www.frontiersin.org/.../fmars.2023.1125137/full (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1125137)
