Deforestation of the Seafloor

• The area of seabed trawled worldwide is ~ 150 times greater than the area of forest clearcut each year (an area twice the size of the lower 48 United States).

• Although some spots escape trawling by chance or because they don't have fish, each square foot of the world's continental shelves is trawled every ~ 2 years

http://www.mcbi.org/btrawl/wnpaper.html

Watling et al. 1998. Disturbance of the seabed by mobile fishing gear: a comparison with forest clearcutting. Cons. Biol. 12. 1180-1197.

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