A new study on Koko, a North Pacific seamount, found a clear pattern: where there’s more trawl damage and lost fishing gear, there’s less life.
Coral and sponge communities, which form the foundation of seamount ecosystems, are dramatically reduced, and recovery appears to be slow and uneven.
Scientists found that areas scarred by fishing gear had far fewer deep-sea corals and sponges, and the habitat was much less complex.
According to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition:
“The findings of this study remind us that bottom contact fishing, including trawling, doesn’t just affect fish stocks, it leaves lasting scars and can reshape entire deep-sea ecosystems.”
After 60 years of bottom trawling, Koko seamount is now a patchwork of damaged and recovering areas, but pockets of untouched habitat remain, offering a glimpse of what a healthy deep-sea ecosystem once looked like.
Read the full study in Marine Environmental Research.
