When we destroy coastal wetlands, we destroy the source of much of the fish we eat. More houses along the coast mean more water pollution. As our numbers grow, it becomes more and more important for us to take care of our coastal environment. Only then will the sea continue to feed us. The seafloor shelters fish and shellfish Many kinds of fish and shellfish live and breed on the ocean floor.
Scallops burrow into the sandy seafloor.
Young cod find shelter among delicate underwater forests of sea fans , tubeworms and anemones . Eelgrass shelters scallops in the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve . In recent years, people have started fishing heavily with bottom trawls and dredges , which drag huge, heavy nets over the seafloor, scooping up everything in their path. But they devastate the seafloor and hurt fish populations by destroying the habitats where fish hide and feed. Some scientists believe trawling and dredging are as destructive as clear-cutting forests on land.