Seamounts: Biodiversity and Fisheries
Managing and Protecting Seamount Ecosystems
Jackie Alder and Louisa Wood
UBC Fisheries CentreAbstract
The overwhelming evidence of the fragility of seamounts and their associated resources suggests that they require a high level of protection. Seamounts have a global distribution, existing within and beyond areas under national jurisdiction. Seamounts in areas under national jurisdiction can be protected using legal mechanisms such as protected areas and fisheries restrictions. However, the legal and geopolitical challenges to protecting international waters, including seamounts, are numerous and far-reaching: there is no unified managing authority, and so seamounts in particular are subject to unmanaged exploitation by several countries. The vulnerability of seamount species and lack of management in the high seas has prompted NGOs to call for the designation of international protected areas for fragile deep-sea ecosystems, including seamounts, and for a United Nations moratorium on high seas bottom trawling until a management regime is adopted. In this paper, we present preliminary analyses of: 1) the distribution of seamounts inside and outside areas under national jurisdiction, to assess the extent to which gaps in the international legal regime might compromise the maintenance of the ecological values of seamounts, and 2) the number of seamounts already protected under existing mechanisms within EEZs. We discuss the nature of existing management and protection of seamounts, and examine the various legal and institutional instruments, which may be used to improve seamount management.