November 4, 2022 — Multiple websites that are affiliated with NOAA detail info about bottom trawling and outline the tools and processes that are associated with many different trawl practices, including their own. NOAA trawl surveys allow the agency to track changes in fish and invertebrate populations across the oceans, providing academic institutions, government agencies and the private sector with essential information.
However, one notable omission from these resources is the impact that they do or could have on the very ecosystems they’re exploring. While NOAA captures plenty of information in an unobtrusive way, bottom trawling efforts cannot be described as such. That insight was broken down in detail back in 2016, when the USGS outlined info about how such practices destroy the natural seafloor habitat by essentially rototilling the seabed. It mentions that bottom-dwelling plants and animals are greatly affected by this practice and can be outright destroyed.
That insight caused some government and private agencies to change how they capture information about seabed ecosystems. However, NOAA’s bottom trawling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico remained mostly unchanged, which recently compelled the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to send a letter to NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. This letter outlines how these practices are needlessly harming seafloor habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. The effort to change the way scientific surveys of bottom habitats are conducted is something that’s been going on for over a decade though.