Bottom trawling seen from space

BOSTON, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. conservationists said bottom trawling by industrial fishermen creates clouds of mud that can be seen from space.

The Marine Conservation Biology Institute said new satellite images show spreading clouds of mud remain suspended in the ocean long after a trawler has dragged its large, heavy nets across the sea floor, stirring up sediment.

The group said studies have shown that bottom trawling kills vast numbers of corals, sponges, fish and other animals.

"Bottom trawling is the most destructive of any actions that humans conduct in the ocean," Les Watling of the University of Hawaii said in a statement.

The findings were presented Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean has banned trawling in the Mediterranean Sea below depths of 1,000 meters and the United States has closed vast deep-sea areas off Alaska to bottom trawling. Last year, the United Nations General Assembly began deliberations on a trawling moratorium on the high seas, which cover 45 percent of Earth's surface, conservationists said.