06 Feb 2007 - London, UK – After years of lobbying efforts,
the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission and the European
Community have agreed to protect the coral-rich waters off
north-west Scotland.
The Rockall and Hatton Banks — located in the North Atlantic
some 400 kilometers from the Scottish coast — will now be
protected from destructive fishing, which threaten cold-water
coral reefs that a several thousand years old, and populations
of vulnerable fish species.
WWF, together with the Scottish Fishermen's Federation,
developed a protection plan for the coral reefs at Rockall
Bank, as well as for the endangered fish stocks, particularly
Rockall haddock.
“After eight years of continuous efforts to protect the
Rockall Bank, this is a successful milestone,” said Christian
Neumann, Marine Conservation Officer at WWF-Germany.
“Finally the cold-water corals are getting the kind of
protection that they so desperately need. The designation
of these closures as marine protected areas would be the
next step towards responsible ocean stewardship.”
Cold-water coral reefs make an important contribution to
the health of the seas by providing habitats for sea fans,
sponges, starfish, sea urchins, and crustaceans. The reefs,
often associated with seamounts, serve as essential spawning
and nursery grounds for several commercial fish species,
including orange roughy, blue ling and grenadiers.
In previous years, WWF helped protect the Darwin Mounds,
another coral area off the Scottish coast, as well as five
reefs in Norwegian waters and the ecologically-rich waters
surrounding the Azores.
Despite the urgent need for protection, the United Nations
late last year failed to prohibit unregulated bottom trawling
on the high seas, allowing for the unnecessary plunder of
the ocean’s precious resources to continue unabated.
“The negotiations at the UN represented the first opportunity
for the international community to take action on the back
of recent scientific reports about the serious plight of
the oceans and the collapse of global fisheries,” said Dr
Simon Cripps, Director of WWF’s Global Marine Programme.
“The failure of governments to heed advice from some of
the world’s leading scientists and to reach agreement on
a plan for immediate protection of vulnerable high sea areas
enables one of the world’s most destructive fishing practices
to continue.”
WWF continues to push the contracting Parties to the NEAFC
Convention to manage fisheries in the high seas responsibly
through an ecosystem approach, and continues its efforts
to ensure that EU Members States protect deep-sea fish stocks,
cold-water corals and seamount habitats.
END NOTES:
• The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC)
regulates fisheries in the North East Atlantic Ocean in
areas beyond the 200-nautical mile limit of a country's
national jurisdiction. There are currently five contracting
parties: the European Community, Denmark (in respect of
the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Iceland, Norway and the
Russian Federation.
Christian Neumann, Marine Conservation Officer - WWF-Germany
