Creatures not snared are crushed, buried, or exposed to predators. Marine researchers now say such trawling worldwide destroys a seabed area twice the size of the contiguous United States each year. Wash. The complete damage report appears in a suite of articles in the December Conservation Biology. Logging flattens an area about the size of Indiana yearly. Since the 1970s, new technology has allowed fishing fleets to trawl deeper.
Skeptics point out that such estimates stem from incomplete research.
Md. Smullen says that before sounding an alarm, his agency is trying to find out more about trawling's long-term effects on fish habitat. Norse and others are pushing to set aside areas for immediate protection. From Science News , Vol. 154, Nos. Copyright 1998 by Science Service. A conceptual model of the impacts of fishing gear on the integrity of fish habitats.