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Living Oceans has identified 12 hot spots where the most deep seacorals and sponges were uprooted. Setting those areas aside would reduce the bycatch of corals and sponges by over 90 percent.
We are calling on DFO to implement immediate bottom trawl closures in these areas under the Fisheries Act. We have also asked that all areas not currently trawled be closed until research can be done to determine their importance as habitat. |
The B.C. trawl fishery is the largest in the province by volume, but it receives the lowest average price per pound. Many of the species caught by trawlers end up as fish sticks.
- There are 142 licensed vessels in B.C., of which 70 are active
- Many licensed vessel owners park their boats and “sell” their allowable catch quota to active boats
- Licence holders may buy, sell, trade or lease their quota
- Trawling is the largest fishery in B.C. by volume, landing 98 million kilograms valued at $53.5 million in 2002 (the last year for which we have data)
- Some species such as lingcod and many species of rockfish can, and are, caught with other gear types such as hook and line.
- All bottom trawl vessels are required to pay an on-board observer from Archipelago Marine Research (Victoria, B.C.) to record the amount of landed and discarded species by weight, on every trip
- Observers are not trained in the identification of corals and sponges
Living Oceans Society has analyzed the observer data from 1996 to 2002 and learned:
- Over eight years, the B.C. bottom trawling fleet discarded 68 million kilos of bycatch, the amount it would take to fill a convoy of pickup trucks, bumper to bumper, between Vancouver and Prince George
- 2.3 million kilos of invertebrates were discarded, including habitat-forming corals and sponges , anemones, molluscs, sea stars, and hydroids
- An average of 250 species are brought on deck by trawlers each year and either sold or thrown overboard, although the stock status is known for only 19 of these species
- The most valuable species landed by bottom trawlers in 2002 was the Pacific Ocean perch, worth $6 million
- The species most discarded in 2002 was the arrowtooth flounder (“turbot”); 2.4 million kilos were thrown overboard
