HELP PROTECT CORALS IN THE GULF OF ALASKA

The Gulf of Alaska is home to spectacular coral gardens, sponge beds, deep-sea canyons and seamounts where fish and other ocean life feed, breed and seek refuge.

The Gulf of Alaska is also the last place off the U.S. North Pacific coast largely open to bottom trawling, a form of fishing where nets as long as a mile and several hundred feet wide are dragged along the seafloor for up to 15 miles at a time.

Bottom trawling is the single greatest threat to fragile habitat like cold water corals, as a single pass of a bottom trawl can plow the seafloor leaving rubble in its wake. Fishery managers took action to protect habitat areas elsewhere off Alaska, yet much of the Gulf of Alaska remains under threat.

Act NOW to tell fishery managers to protect corals and other seafloor habitats in the Gulf of Alaska, and the salmon, halibut, crab, whales and other ocean life that depend on healthy marine habitat to thrive and survive.

petition letter

Dear Chair Drobnica and Council members:

We request the North Pacific Fishery Management Council protect seafloor habitats in the Gulf of Alaska from bottom trawling. Specifically, we request that the Council freeze the footprint of groundfish bottom trawling to ensure currently untrawled areas are not impacted, and protect important ecological areas within the trawl footprint like coral gardens and areas important to Tanner and Red King crab. And we request that “pelagic” trawls that contact the seafloor be prohibited from fishing inside habitat and crab conservation areas unless net sensors or similar tools are used that can demonstrate that the gear is fished entirely in the water column.

Healthy ocean habitats are at the core of productive ocean ecosystems and essential for salmon, halibut, crab and other marine life — and many Alaskans who rely on them.

The central and western Gulf of Alaska is especially vulnerable. Only 10% of this vast region is protected year-round from groundfish bottom trawling, a form of fishing identified by the National Academy of Sciences as one of the greatest threats to seafloor habitats. And unfortunately, pelagic trawls are allowed to fish in many habitat conservation areas. It is now known the nets are frequently dragged on the seafloor. This gear should not be allowed to contact the seafloor in any existing or new conservation areas intended to protect seafloor habitats and bottom species like Tanner or Red King crab.

We cannot afford to wait; the Council can and should initiate a process now to protect and enhance essential fish habitats while simultaneously managing for a vibrant Alaska seafood industry.

Sincerely,

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