The United Nations General Assembly (UN GA), in 2006, called on regional fisheries management organizations such as NAFO to establish regulations by 31 December 2008 to prevent damage to corals, sponges, seamounts and other vulnerable deep-sea marine habitats from bottom fishing on the high seas.

Among other measures, the UN GA called for closures of all areas to bottom fishing where vulnerable marine ecosystems are "known or likely" to occur unless regulations are in place prevent damage. NAFO did agree this week to partially close two additional seamount areas, although exploratory fishing is still allowed in 20% of the area.

However, NAFO failed to close six areas of the deep-sea identified by scientists as containing high concentrations of corals and other vulnerable species. Nor did NAFO agree to any regulations to prevent damage from continued bottom trawling in these areas, in spite of the UN GA resolution to do so.

NAFO did adopt an 'encounter' protocol that requires fishing vessels to move 2 nautical miles from an areas where they accidentally catch corals and sponges, but only if they catch more than 100 kilograms of coral or 1000 kilograms of sponges, quantities far higher than those recommended by NAFO's own working group of fisheries scientists and managers.

"These long lived, deep seas species deserve far greater protection," said Susanna Fuller of the Halifax based Ecology Action Centre. "NAFO countries have yet to deliver on the commitments they made at the UN in 2006, and agreed to at an Extraordinary Meeting of NAFO earlier this year".

Spain has the largest deep sea trawl fleet fishing in the NAFO area. The Spanish fishing industry has often argued that in historically fished areas, where trawling has already occurred, corals have already been destroyed and there is no point in closing any of these areas to bottom trawling because the corals are gone.

"NAFO scientists made some good progress this past year in mapping areas where there are corals and sponges and seamounts, using up to date scientific information, " says Jennifer Ford, also of the Ecology Action Centre. "Yet when it comes to meaningful protection, there is resistance to closing areas anywhere where fishing has occurred over the past 20 years. If anything, it is urgent to protect what corals remain in order to prevent the complete destruction of these ecosystems."

"It seems fairly clear that NAFO is not going to meet the UN deadline although if there were a genuine will to do so, they could still meet again at the end of this year or early next year to put meaningful regulations in place before the 2009 fishing season," said Matthew Gianni of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.

"NAFO is making progress in shifting its approach to regulating deep-sea fisheries and deep sea habitats certainly in terms of procedures," said Susanna Fuller, "But the real shift will be when fishing nations realize that not every where is going to be open to fishing, and some areas will have to be closed to destructive fishing gear forever."

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