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Ottawa won’t call for ban on trawling
High-seas dragging needlessly destroys habitat, ecologists say
By STEPHEN MAHER Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA — Canada does not plan to join an international movement calling for a UN ban on bottom trawling on the high seas, a spokesman for Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said Tuesday after the minister met with Sylvia Earle, an American undersea explorer.
"Not at this point in time," said Steve Outhouse after the meeting. "The minister heard what she had to say and did indicate that he would take into consideration their views as they looked at . . . whether they would support a ban on dragging on the high seas."
Before her meeting with the minister, Ms. Earle, a National Geographic explorer, gave a speech at the National Press Club, showing slides and discussing her experiences in more than 50 years of undersea research around the world.
She showed a series of before-and-after images showing the effects of dragging, a fishing technique in which a vessel drags a large, heavy net along the ocean floor, destroying coral and capturing many creatures that are later discarded.
The "before" slides show coral reefs full of sea life of all kinds. The "after" slides show barren undersea deserts devoid of life. Ms. Earle and her Canadian allies, the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax and the Living Oceans Society from B.C., argue that dragging in areas where there are coral beds foolishly destroys the habitat on which sea creatures rely.
"It’s like taking a bulldozer to go to the forest to catch squirrels," said Ms. Earle.
The environmentalists want Canada to join the European Union and other countries in calling for a ban on bottom trawling on the high seas. Mr. Hearn’s predecessor, Liberal Geoff Regan, refused to back such an effort.
Mr. Hearn may change his mind, said Mr. Outhouse, but he hasn’t yet.
"Our minister’s not a fan of an all-out ban, including within the 200-mile limit," he said. "He was receptive and listened to it, but no, at this point in time. The minister is not ruling it out on the high seas, but he wasn’t ready to make a commitment today."
Canadian fishermen do not practise dragging on the high seas. Environmentalists say Fisheries and Oceans Canada is afraid to oppose bottom trawling on the high seas only because of pressure from Canadian draggers, who are afraid it will lead to calls to ban dragging in Canadian waters.
An internal department briefing document obtained by The Canadian Press shows the industry is letting the government know how it feels.
"While Canadian fishers engage in almost no bottom trawling on the high seas, bottom trawling is regularly practiced within Canada’s (200-mile limit) and there is significant concern domestically that any international action would be applied in Canadian waters," the document says.
"I tend to look at this as a very selfish approach," said Jennifer Lash of the Living Oceans Society.
The industry is expressing its view to the department, said Mr. Outhouse.
"There’s definitely a logic to that," he said. "If you purport to do that somewhere else and not within your 200-mile limit, there are risks of holding of double standards."
Mr. Outhouse said the minister was impressed by his meeting with Ms. Earle.
It was 1952 when Ms. Earle made her first dive in a copper diving helmet, with air coming from a gasoline-driven air pump on the surface. She dove with Jacques Cousteau, has led more than 60 deep-sea expeditions, and written many articles and a handful of books. She has been a pioneer diver and a pioneer for female scientists.
Ms. Earle is seeking to protect ocean ecosystems that have been plundered at an increasing rate in the past decade — a process she has watched happening around the world. She warns that dragging is destroying ecosystems that we do not understand and have only begun to explore.
In the 1960s, all the world’s fishermen took about 20 million tonnes a year from the ocean. Now, she said, it is at least 90 million tonnes, and whole ecosystems — such as the cod on the Grand Banks — have been destroyed.
Our ability to find and efficiently exploit sea creatures is constantly improving.
"We have the capacity to destroy," she said. "The real question is: Do we have the capacity to learn to apply the knowledge that we have for our own interest?"
(smaher@herald.ca)
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