Supporting a moratorium on high seas bottom trawl fishing

Abstract

A great deal of deep-sea biodiversity is concentrated around features known as seamounts. Seamounts are like underwater islands - mountains that rise 1,000 meters or higher from the seabed but do not break the ocean surface. Although they have not been comprehensively mapped, it is estimated that there may be more than 100,000 seamounts worldwide. Almost half of these are believed to lie in the Pacific Ocean. To date, less than one percent of known seamounts have been comprehensively studied. The largest mountain range on planet Earth is beneath the ocean the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.