SAN FRANCISCO - March 17 - Bottom-trawling, often regarded as “aquatic clear-cutting,” is the subject of a statement released this week by a coalition of citizen experts from around the Bering Sea. The International Bering Sea Forum is calling for additional scientific research into the impacts of bottom trawling in the Bering, and to identify key habitat where bottom trawling should be limited. In a statement being sent to lawmakers in the U.S. and in Russia, the Forum details the need for intergovernmental efforts among the U.S. and Russia to develop a system of zoning in the Bering Sea that restricts bottom trawling in areas designated as “sensitive habitat.”

Bottom trawling is a form of industrial fishing where heavy chains, nets and steel plates are dragged across the ocean floor. The gear scoops up large quantities of fish, while razing natural underwater structures in its path, such as coral reefs and rock piles. According to some estimates, bottom trawlers drag an area of the ocean as large as the entirety of the world’s continental shelves every two years.

The Forum points to scientific evidence that current levels of bottom trawling activity in the Bering Sea are “harmful to marine life” and argues that the “intensity of trawling will impact future marine life and habitat due to long term significant damage to those habitats.”

Whit Sheard, a member of the Forum and a Program Manager at the Ocean Conservancy, commented, “Bottom trawling is destroying the underwater equivalent of the Amazon Rainforest. Coral reefs, and the fish that thrive in them, are an essential element in sustaining life in the Bering, and everywhere else.”

Forum members express concern that the Bering Sea, a globally important habitat for marine life and an important fishery, is experiencing significant ecological changes that are of concern to many Bering Sea residents and scientists internationally. Simultaneously, Forum members point out that indigenous peoples and local communities in Russia and the United States are dependent upon the ecological well-being and the stability of resources in the Bering Sea for their health, quality of life, sustainable livelihoods and cultures.

The Forum’s statement follows the release of a major report released last February that details the global impacts of bottom trawling. The report, “High Seas Bottom Fisheries and Their Impact on the Biodiversity of Vulnerable Deep-Sea Ecosystems,” co-published by WWF, NRDC, and the World Conservation Union, details how the practice poses significant risks to marine biodiversity, including species extinction. The Forum’s Bottom Trawling Statement focuses on the Bering Sea, one of the world’s most important marine habitats, which supplies the U.S. with over 50 per cent of its seafood.

The Bering Sea, which lies between Alaska and the Russian Far East, is largely in U.S. and Russian territorial waters. Although the Bering is a single marine environment, the two countries fail to coordinate the management of the sea. Forum members emphasize the need for international cooperation and have made it a priority to influence their respective governments to take common approaches to managing the Bering.

With many fisheries worldwide collapsing due to overfishing and pollution, the Bering Sea remains one of the last relatively robust marine habitats in the world. However, Forum members point out that the Bering is showing signs of strain, as more fishing fleets with more sophisticated and destructive gear are chasing fewer fish.

The International Bering Sea Forum, founded in August 2003, is an independent, non-governmental body of scientists, indigenous leaders, environmentalists, and family fishermen from both the U.S. and Russia committed to sustainable management of the Bering Sea. The Forum was founded in the belief that the Bering Sea is a global treasure, and that international cooperation is crucial to head off a number of threats, including overfishing, poaching, global warming, and pollution.

The International Bering Sea Forum is coordinated by Pacific Environment, a non-governmental organization based in San Francisco, California that protects the living environment of the Pacific Rim.

For more information, see www.beringseaforum.org and www.pacificenvironment.org.

Statement of the International Bering Sea Forum

Regarding Bottom Trawling Activity in the Bering Sea

WHEREAS the Bering Sea, the third largest sea and a globally important habitat for marine life and an important fishery, is experiencing significant ecological changes that are of concern to many Bering Sea residents and scientists internationally; and

WHEREAS indigenous peoples and local communities in Russia and the United States are dependent upon the ecological wellbeing and the stability of resources in the Bering Sea for their health, quality of life, sustainable livelihoods and cultures; and

WHEREAS Russia and the United States are the two countries that exercise the greatest amount of sovereign jurisdiction over territorial areas of Bering Sea and are the most directly able to influence the management of the Bering Sea using their sovereign rights; and

WHEREAS reliable scientific evidence indicates that the current set levels of bottom trawling activity in the Bering Sea are harmful to marine life and that the intensity of trawling will impact future marine life and habitat due to long term significant damage to those habitats; and

WHEREAS the Forum understands that maximally sustainable fishing practices in the Bering Sea hold economic importance to Russia and the United States, to indigenous peoples, to local communities, and for the development of international trade; and

WHEREAS the Forum is aware that other historically important marine habitats and fisheries throughout the world have been “mismanaged” in that over-fishing and habitat damage led to dramatic declines in marine species populations as well as ecological and economic duress in human ecosystems dependent on the condition of marine life; and

WHEREAS the International Bering Sea Forum, comprised of individual citizen representatives from Russia and the United States, with expertise in marine conservation, science, governance, indigenous rights, and local & international community development, has considered and discussed opportunities and challenges relating to fisheries management in the Bering Sea;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the International Bering Sea Forum, hereby call on the U.S. and Russian governments through ongoing bilateral negotiations to agree to support further scientific research on bottom trawling in the Bering Sea, including identification and impacts on essential fish habitat, especially in regions accessed by indigenous groups for traditional natural resource use, and to develop a system of zoning in the Bering Sea that restricts bottom trawling in areas designated as “sensitive habitat”; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the International Bering Sea Forum calls upon governments for increased enforcement of existing regulations restricting the use of bottom trawling, which would require increased enforcement budgets to ensure that this occurs; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Forum calls for the development and signing of an improved intergovernmental agreement and active cooperation in the regulation and enforcement of bottom trawling restrictions nationally and internationally; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the International Bering Sea Forum will establish a “Fishing Gear Monitoring Committee” to follow up on the recommendations of this general statement and to further research the impact of present bottom trawling and other fishing gear regulations and practices as well as other regulatory policies that impact commercial fishing and fishing gear in both Russia and the United States. In addition, the Committee will seek opportunities for encouraging restriction, as necessary, of current bottom trawling practices based on scientific studies. The Forum acknowledges the essential role of the indigenous people of Alaska and Russia, welcomes the steps taken by those people with the goal of cooperation in the conservation and management of marine life in the Bering Sea region, and desires to ensure their full involvement in the implementation and enforcement of any agreement that is made.

AND FINALLY, BE IT UNDERSTOOD that the International Bering Sea Forum is a private, non-governmental entity, whose members serve as individual representatives and do not represent the organizations with which they are affiliated.

###