Bottom trawling drags weighted nets and heavy gear across the seafloor at high speed, indiscriminately capturing target species and huge numbers of other organisms. The method provides about a quarter of the world's seafood while bulldozing centuries-old coral, scallop gardens and seagrass beds. Massive bycatch and habitat destruction result from the blind, fast sweeping of vast seabed areas. The ocean absorbs roughly 30 percent of human-produced CO2, with phytoplankton converting CO2 into organic carbon that often sinks to the seafloor. Seafloor sediments store this carbon for long periods. Disturbing those sediments through trawling can potentially release climate-warming gases back to the water column and atmosphere, creating a lesser-known climate risk.
A heavy metal net is dragged across the seafloor at breakneck speed, churning up dark clouds of sediment and swallowing everything in its path. A blue-spotted stingray tries to flee, flailing its winglike pectoral fins as the trawl closes in from behind, but its efforts are in vain. This unprecedented footagea scene in David Attenborough's latest documentary Oceanis the first time bottom trawling has been captured in high definition, exposing a practice rarely seen by the public.
Bottom trawling is a highly controversial fishing method, but it provides a quarter of the world's seafood. It involves a vessel pulling a weighted net and other heavy gear, blindly and fast, along vast stretches of seabedoften in pursuit of only one or two commercially valuable species. It traps huge numbers of other organisms and bulldozes over fragile habitats, destroying centuries-old coral, scallop gardens and seagrass beds.
It's hard to imagine a more wasteful way to catch fish, Attenborough narrates somberly as viewers watch a pile of dead juvenile sharks and rays get swept off the deck of the fishing vessel in Ocean. But ecological destruction is not the only concern. Emerging research points to another lesser-known problem with bottom trawling: its potential to unleash climate-warming gases by disturbing carbon stored in seafloor sediments.
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