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Published online 7 March 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.658
News
Fishing trawlers have double the reach
Trawling shallower depths can affect fish in the deep sea.
The huge cables used by commercial deep-sea fishing trawlers have a much greater reach than anyone realized. That's the conclusion of a new analysis of fish surveys that reveals dramatic declines in the abundance of fishes in deep waters off Ireland.
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The photograph does not show a trawler but a purse seiner. This is unfortunate, as purse seiners do not cause the kind of damage refered to in the news. Seiners may only catch fish near the sea surface, whereas trawlers fish much deeper.