Tuesday 10 June 2014

Portugal protects over two million km2 of ocean from trawling

Most deep-sea fishing has now been prohibited by the Portuguese government in an area spanning more than two million km2, in a move to help promote sustainable fisheries and the conservation of deep-sea ecosystems. The exceptions are fishing with lines and hooks, and pole and line, and catching bait with a purse seine. Bottom longline fishing is confined to a fixed number of days a year and restricted to a minimal hook size and maximum number of hooks per line.

“Portugal has made a significant step to ensure that its fleet is exploiting deep-sea ecosystems sustainably," says Xavier Pastor, executive director of Oceana in Europe. "We hope that this measure, which will affect an area four times the size of the Iberian Peninsula, inspires other countries with fishing interests in the area to adopt similar bans.

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