May 22, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Healthy habitats are productive habitats. They provide food and shelter for fish and help to maintain sustainable fish populations and fisheries that produce the seafood that we all love and depend on. Everyone benefits when marine habitats are protected from the effects of fishing.
Fish Rely on Healthy Habitats for Growth and Survival
Fish that live on or near the bottom of the ocean need food and places to hide from predators in order to survive and grow large enough to reproduce. Rocky habitats, especially those with lots of attached plants and animals like sponges, mussels, and anemones, are ideal habitats for many species of fish. These habitats are also the most vulnerable to impacts from commercial fishing gear. Nets and dredges that are towed over the bottom of the ocean can disturb bottom habitats, removing and damaging plants and animals that live there. Disturbed habitats provide fish with less food and less shelter from predators. Some habitat organisms grow and form very slowly. Once they are removed or damaged, it can take years for them to be replaced. As a result, if these vulnerable bottom habitats are fished too heavily they may never fully recover from the effects of fishing and are no longer healthy habitats for fish.
Types of Towed Fishing Gear
In New England and the Mid-Atlantic, fishermen use three primary types of towed commercial fishing gear: bottom trawls, scallop dredges, and clam dredges. Other gears such as lobster traps remain in place while fishing and have very little effect on bottom habitats.