June 10, 2013 — Last week, on World Oceans Day, Oceana urged the prioritisation of scientific research into overlooked and fragile deep sea areas.
Despite a massive gap in knowledge of deep sea areas, destructive activities are authorised without any clear insight into their impact on local ecosystems. Slow-growing and vulnerable species and habitats are facing potentially irreversible damage.
"Activities such as oil prospecting, mining and destructive fishing reached the bottom of the sea a long time ago, but conservation has failed to catch up, remaining instead at the surface," stated Ricardo Aguilar, Research Director of Oceana in Europe.
High costs and inefficient technology have continuously left the deep sea off of research and conservation projects. If an area has not been studied, if its ecological significance has yet to be established and if an impact assessment hasn’t been carried out, it is not only irresponsible, but also dangerous for harmful activities to be permitted in these fragile areas.
Read the full story at The Fish Site