What is bottom trawling? History and evolution.
- There is no doubt that trawling is the least selective type of fishing that exists, even less than fishing with driftnets, which is why this industrial method is very harmful to the seabed, which is why in a large majority of countries this form of fishing is highly regulated and is even being banned in some areas of the planet.
- If we look closely, trawling consists of dropping huge nets onto the ocean floor and, by means of powerful boats, they are dragged along, taking away everything that is in front of them, destroying hundreds of algae, reefs, all sorts of species of low value for fishing and depleting the seabed in a brutal way.
- That is why retro fishing has become a problem to deal with in many environmental summits around the world, as early as the seventeenth century, in England questioned the efficiency and usefulness of this form of fishing, treating it little respectful of the worthy work of the fisherman due to the amount of resources that was carried behind the famous trawl nets and the little effort it meant for the fisherman to perform this activity.
- This form of industrial fishing has indeed survived for many years due to its effectiveness for bottom fishing, but at the cost of almost irreversible damage in some areas of our planet. A turning point in the prohibition of this fishing was in 1405 in the River Thames, tells the story that more than 2000 people arrived from Essex and Kent met there because the authorities of the time stole the trawl nets from the fishermen of the area, so there was a small dispute until the fishermen themselves were able to recover their new appreciated nets.
- Since that day, the authorities banned for a full year the practice of trawling, this did not end definitively with it, obviously, but if it was a turning point for future generations giving a wake-up call to consider definitively the suspension of this practice.
- Some people consider coastal trawlers as artisanal fishing vessels, this definition may be valid but in no case can it be considered as sustainable fishing. As we have already discussed, this form of fishing began back in the fifteenth century, but it certainly had nothing to do with the sailing boats of the time with the powerful motorboats we know today.
- It was at the beginning of the 20th century that trawling evolved into what it is today. An interesting statistic taken from Greenpeace is that to catch 1 Kg of fish with high commercial value, a large quantity of fish are wasted and thrown overboard, indispensable for the maintenance of the trophic chain from which many of the predators that end up on our tables to be consumed are fed.
How does trawling work?
Trawl nets
- Retro fishing is based on netting in the form of a giant sock or cone that is towed through a boat, this is achieved by keeping the net open while the boat drags it across the seabed. The pieces or parts of the net that make the net as open as possible are called doors, these are arranged apart from each other at an equidistant distance leaving the net always unfolded. Another important feature of the trawl is the floats that carry in the mouth or upper part that keeps it afloat and some weights or ballasts that carries in its lower part that makes it remain fixed to the bottom of the sea. As I have already mentioned this way of fishing is very destructive with the seabed.
What are the problems with bottom trawling to the marine ecosystem?
- The environment may not give many people the importance it really has, but no doubt those who know how the planet Earth works know perfectly that maintaining and caring for our ecosystem is a fundamental part of our existence. Speeches aside, trawling has a brutal trigger in the destruction of the seabed, since that is where the vast majority of algae, plants and hundreds of thousands of living organisms that are part of the balance of our marine ecosystem grow. The gear or nets currently used are much more damaging than those of yesteryear, as these use systems to dig even more into the mud and therefore wipe out much more land.
Would it be possible to ban trawling in its entirety?
- There is an idea that if retro-fishing were to be banned altogether, many of the vessels commissioned to do so would be rendered useless, nothing beyond reality, since this type of vessel can perfectly adapt to a much more sustainable artisanal fishing model and more jobs would be created because artisanal fishing requires more manpower, all of which would contribute to a more sustainable fishery.
- The effect of overfishing is accentuating in recent years is why it is necessary to change the model towards a much more selective and sustainable. One possible solution is to strengthen the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which promotes the most sustainable fisheries. We must look for an approach that understands that quantity should not be better than quality and that we should not only prioritize the economic factor of the activity but also take into accounts other more important factors such as the environment, sustainability or employment.