Deep-sea trawlers threaten rare fish

Published on Sunday 18 December 2005 00:28

FISHERIES ministers will face calls to close the deep-sea fishery off the north-west coast of Scotland this week after new reports of drastic falls in stocks.

Fleets of mainly Spanish and Panamanian trawlers fish for deep-sea species such as the orange roughy and the round-nosed grenadier which are popular among consumers on the continent.

But as well as devastating commercial stocks near Rockall and the Hatton Bank, the trawlers have been accused of trapping other rare species in nets set for long periods.

According to the environmental group WWF Scotland, the numbers of deep-water sharks such as the leafscale gulper have declined by 80% in just 10 years.

The new figures will be published this week at the annual quota-setting meeting of EU fisheries ministers. The Brussels meeting will discuss deep-sea species in the fishing grounds off Scotland for the next year.

Claire Pescod, the Marine Policy Officer for WWF Scotland, said: "There is a real danger that slow growing, deep-water species will take centuries to recover, if they can at all. Deep-water sharks living around cold water coral mounts such as Rockall and Hatton Bank are being persecuted at a horrific scale and many deep-water shark populations have dropped by 80% with just 10 years of fishing."

Pescod said the gill-net trawlers leave their nets attached to the sea bottom for weeks at a time. By the time the fishermen bring up the nets for harvesting the catch, more than 60% of it is unfit for human consumption as it has rotted in the nets.

In EU waters the orange roughy fishery, at depths deeper than 400 metres, has virtually collapsed in 20 years.