Fisheries council protects Atlantic coral

More than 90,650 sq km of ocean habitat along the US Atlantic coast has gained protection from trawl and dredge fishing that could harm deep-sea ocean corals, according to an environmental group supporting the restrictions.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted on Wednesday to protect an area of the Atlantic stretching from Long Island, New York to the border of southern border of Virginia.

The protected zone encompasses an open water space as large as Kentucky, according to Oceana, an environmental non-profit group based in Washington.

The area is not fished commercially yet, but similar depths are now being fished in New Zealand and Europe, where deep water corals are also found, said Gib Brogan, fisheries campaign manager for Oceana.

"It's a precautionary measure. They've drawn a clear line in the Atlantic Ocean and said you can't go fish in that area until the scientists have determined there aren't corals in that area. It's a very big piece of ocean."

South Atlantic waters off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida received similar protection of deep water corals from fishing in 2010, he said. But there are no protections for coastal North Carolina.

Corals are a form of marine life related to jellyfish. They grow in dark waters, hundreds of metres below the ocean surface.

Scientists have been studying deep-water corals to better understand their role in the ecosystem, Brogan said.

"They provide shelter and cover and they are the subject of an emerging field of biomedical research.''

The independent fishery management council works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to write fishing regulations for ocean waters between 5km and 320km of the coast.

 

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