CORALS OF THE BERING SEA
Victory! In June of 2007, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously to protect approximately 180,000 square miles of previously unexploited ocean floor in the Bering Sea from destructive bottom trawling. This landmark decision included protection for areas in the northern Bering Sea that are critical feeding spots for endangered spectacled eiders, Pacific walrus, gray whales and other species.
The Council chose Alternative 2, advocated by Oceana, other organizations and local communities to "freeze the footprint" of bottom trawling, allowing trawlers to continue operations in areas where trawling currently occurs and establishing a boundary to prevent further damage to seafloor habitats. This decision was the result of years of campaigning by Oceana and others. Oceana’s Wavemakers made their voices heard throughout the campaign, with thousands of public comments to the Council on this issue from our community of ocean activists. This decision was a great victory for the whales, walrus, seabirds and other animals in the Bering Sea.
The Bering Sea contains the world's largest continental shelf-an elevated underwater plain-and the most productive fisheries in North America. As ocean currents move north from the Pacific Ocean and the Aleutian basin toward the Arctic Ocean, they bring nutrients from the deep sea toward the surface. This upwelling creates thriving seafloor habitat and plankton productivity that are the foundation of the entire ecosystem. Most of the hard corals in the Bering Sea are found on the slope at the edge of the shelf and in canyons, but an array of other seafloor habitats enrich this fertile ocean ecosystem. On the shelf, soft corals, sponges, and other deep sea invertebrates provide living structure on sandy or muddy seafloor.
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With names like sea raspberry, sea onion, sea potato, and sea peach, the invertebrates of the Bering Sea sound pretty tasty. These are living animals that provide essential habitat for the abundant marine life in the Bering Sea. Oceana is identifying areas in the Bering Sea that contain dense aggregations of these important animals so they will be protected for the benefit of the ocean ecosystem.
This rich shelf is a key U.S. fishing ground worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Trawling in the Bering Sea is done at a massive industrial scale. Huge 300 foot factory trawlers crush and destroy the sensitive corals and other important seafloor habitats in their quest for pollock, Pacific cod, and flatfish, among others. According to the National Academy of Sciences, bottom trawling is the single greatest threat to seafloor habitat, and the "first trawl is the worst trawl." This is why the new protections voted on by the Council are so important to the future of the Bering Sea.
There is still work to be done, however. Trawling still occurs in some sensitive areas of the Bering Sea, and while some efforts have been made to convert to "pelagic", or mid-water, trawling, NMFS has many records
of coral and sponge bycatch from "pelagic trawls". Slope areas
of the Bering Sea, which take the longest to recover from damage, are
being hit hard by trawling with some of the highest bycatch rates of corals
and sponges occurring between Bristol Bay and the Pribilof Islands.
Freezing the footprint of trawling is just the one of our three criteria for protecting the Bering Sea from destructive bottom trawling:
- Stop the expansion of bottom trawling into new areas.
- Protect important ecological areas such as skate nursery grounds, and the sensitive shelf and canyon habitats.
- Reduce the impacts of trawling through gear and use modifications.
We are contuining our work to protect the important ecological areas of the Bering Sea, including expanding protections to critical skate nurseries and shelf and slope habitats. Check back on this page for future updates.
Don't miss Bering Sea photos, movies, maps and other resources.
