Melanogrammus aeglefinus or haddock. Photo by Salesjö, A., FishBase.
An international team of researchers gathered in the FISHGLOB Consortium has released a new dataset that presents standardized information from publicly available scientific bottom trawl surveys conducted in the waters of 18 countries from 1963 to 2021 and covering over 2,100 fish species.
Pacific Sleeper Shark. Photo by NOAA.
Bottom trawling is causing “boom and bust” fisheries.
A new study using the Sea Around Us’ reconstructed catch data reveals that in the past 60+ years, the practice of towing giant fishing nets along the sea floor has caused the extraction of 25 million tonnes of fish that live 400 metres or more below sea level leading to the collapse of many of those fish populations.