"While we commend NEAFC for prohibiting fishing for deep-sea sharks, we are disappointed that those some protections were not extended to other deep-sea species and ecosystems that continue to be seriously threatened by deep-sea bottom fishing," said Andrea Kavanagh, director of deep-sea conservation for the Pew Environment Group.

The NEAFC meeting took place two months after the United Nations General Assembly began debating actions taken by NEAFC and other regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) to protect the deep sea. The UN adopted a series of resolutions over the past seven years, committing high-seas fishing countries and RFMOs to urgently protect such species and ecosystems from the harmful impacts of deep-sea fishing, in particular bottom trawl fishing.

This week, the European Union put forward proposals to prohibit fishing for orange roughy and 17 species of deep-sea sharks. The proposal to prohibit fisheries targeting deep-sea sharks, amongst the most vulnerable deep-sea species, was adopted. The proposal to ban fishing for orange roughy, based on a recommendation from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, was supported by Iceland and Norway, but was not adopted by NEAFC because of opposition from Denmark (the Faroe Islands) and Russia.

Read the complete story from The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch