Let's Net the Bottom-Trawlers

The effort to stop the practice of bottom trawling gained momentum this week when a letter to U.S. negotiators at the United Nations from a top State Department official established the US government's complete support. The UN may vote on a proposal for a moratorium on bottom-trawling in December.

Bottom-trawling is a method of fishing where huge nets are dragged across the bottom of the deep sea and in the process, everything in their paths are destroyed. This includes coral reefs and colonies of structure-forming bottom dwellers, such as sponges. The sea floor looks as though a bulldozer passed over it.

Statistics for 1997 on bottom-trawling reveal that 20 trawlers ripped up an estimated 10,000 tons of coral in the process of harvesting 4,000 tons of orange roughy.

Last March, the U.S. banned bottom-trawling in waters off the West Coast for an area of approximately 150,000 square miles. Most countries either ban or severely restrict this method of fishing within their territorial waters.

My question is, which nit-wit or illustrious company invented such a thing as bottom trawling? I wonder if we could find out and give this person or company the credit due them in the media. This is a pet peeve of mine. We only hear general descriptions of big problems. This problem is called bottom-trawling. Could we not add "by blankety-blank?" (Insert the appropriate offender's name in the blank.)

It boggles the mind how some people think.

Source:

Hopes Brighten for Curb on Damaging Ocean Fishing