Delving the deep: We know virtually nothing about deep water ecology and trawling these depths risks destroying countless future resources

The problem, says the organisation, is that ‘the deep sea is believed to contain the largest pool of undiscovered life on earth, supporting between half a million and 100 million species, according to scientists. The danger is that this untold diversity will be destroyed before we even have a chance to study it.’

“Huge bottom trawl nets are dragged along the seabed sweeping up all the fish in their path, while at the same time smashing ancient corals, ripping up sponges and destroying the other marine life which makes up these fragile deep sea communities that have taken thousands of years to develop.” said Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Sari Tolvanen.

Activists are taking steps to protect such deep sea ecosystems. In 2009, Greenpeace placed 140 granite rocks, each weighing between 0.5 and 3 tonnes, in the Lilla Middelgrund in the Swedish Kattegat.

The idea was to make it impossible for trawlers to run their nets across the ocean floor.

More recently, certain global communities have taken further steps to protect such areas. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Fisheries says it has some of the toughest global regulations on bottom trawling.

‘Almost a third of New Zealand’s huge exclusive economic zone is completely closed to bottom trawling and over 90 per cent of New Zealand waters has never been bottom trawled,’ details the country’s Fisheries website.