More than 1,000 scientists are asking for a halt to moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawling. The scientists from around the world say it is destroying cold water corals.

Bottom trawling involves dragging heavy chains, nets and steel plates across the ocean floor.

The scientists released joint statement at a the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the United States and at the United nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur.

Scientists have just begun to understand the importance of deep water coral reefs but "human activities, particularly bottom trawling, are causing unprecedented damage", the statement said.

"Even before scientists can find them, deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems are being destroyed by commercial fishing, especially bottom trawling."

The scientists, described as the world's foremost biologists, say it is not too late to save most of the world's deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems.

They urged the United Nations and appropriate international bodies to establish a moratorium on bottom trawling on the high seas.

"Similarly, we urge individual nations and states to ban bottom trawling to protect deep-sea ecosystems wherever coral forests and reefs are known to occur within their Exclusive Economic Zones."
disturbance," with some threatened with extinction.

Less than 300 vessels practice deep-sea bottom trawling. They are only a miniscule fraction of the world's fishing fleet, but their method "rapidly reduces ancient, thriving bottom complexes to rubble," the study says.

Fishing vessels flagged to only 13 countries, mainly from the developed world, took more than 95 percent of reported high seas bottom trawl catch in 2001, the last year for which data is available, the study shows.

I hope the U.S. isn't one of the nations doing this, but suspect they are!