CORALS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
In the sheltered waters of British Columbia's inside passage and off its outer coast, the glacier-carved seafloor is home to a myriad of deep sea corals and sponges. Gorgonian corals, stony corals, and soft corals are widely distributed from Dixon Entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Scientists also recently discovered 9,000 year old sponge reefs the size of airports in Hecate Strait and on Fraser Ridge adjacent to the city of Vancouver. Corals and sponges of British Columbia provide homes and shelter for a variety of rockfish species as well as crabs, shrimp, and other marine life.
The trawl industry in British Columbia is comprised of approximately 70 vessels. Despite voluntary closures enacted to protect the sponge reefs, trawlers continued to drag their nets over these ancient seafloor treasures, prompting the Canadian government to close these areas to trawling. From 1996 to 2002, fishery observers on trawl boats reported over 90,000 pounds of corals and over 160,000 pounds of sponges as bycatch in British Columbia waters. Most of the corals caught were hard corals, which are the oldest and take the longest to recover. Major trawl fisheries in British Columbia include rockfish, hake, pollock, cod, and flatfish.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is responsible for managing Canada's trawl fisheries and protecting seafloor habitat from destructive practices. The Canadian Government has already recognized the importance of sponge reefs and the damage caused by bottom trawling, but has not yet extended this protection to corals and other sponges in British Columbia by limiting bottom trawling to designated areas where damage to this essential habitat will not occur.
The Living Oceans Society, based in Sointula, BC, has conducted in-depth analysis of coral and sponge locations as well as the economic value of different areas on the British Columbia coast to the trawl industry. They have identified 12 areas where bottom trawling must be stopped to protect important deep sea corals and sponges
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