In a global first, four major fishing companies announced recently a voluntary halt to trawling in eleven deep-sea areas of the southern Indian Ocean. This will protect and conserve the bottom of the sea floor, or benthos, associated fish fauna and related biodiversity in one of the largest marine protected area enclosures ever.

"By setting aside an area almost equal to Australia's Great Barrier Reef National Park, these businesses are sending a clear signal that they want to keep fish on people's plates for generations to come," commented Graham Patchell, a scientist with the newly formed Southern Indian Ocean Deepwater Fishers' Association (SIODFA), which represents four companies - Austral Fisheries Pty Ltd (Australia), Bel Ocean II Ltd (Mauritius), Sealord Group (New Zealand) and TransNamibia Fishing Pty Ltd (Namibia), the main trawling operators in this area.

Using the scientific knowledge gathered over a decade of activity in the Indian Ocean and in consultation with staff of the Fisheries Department of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), SIODFA have delimited 309 000 km2 of ocean floor in eleven separate benthic protected areas where their vessels will no longer fish. The combined zones have an area approximately the size of Norway. To verify compliance with these self-adopted restrictions, the companies will track their vessels' locations and activities via a special satellite monitoring system.

On top of the voluntary establishment of these no-fishing Benthic Protected Areas, SIODFA has pledged to share extremely valuable scientific data collected using complex underwater technology with the soon-to-be-formed regional Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement and the FAO.

"Such deep-sea habitats are among the least known areas of the oceans and by pledging not to fish in them, these companies have taken a great step towards sustainability," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of the Global Marine Programme of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

By not fishing in these areas, which span the southern Indian Ocean, their deepwater corals and the accompanying benthic fauna will gain protection in one of the least explored and unutilized deepwater areas of the world. He noted that at present, less than one percent of the world's oceans fall within protected areas compared to over 12 percent of the planet's terrestrial surface.

Areas of sea floor whose benthos and habitat are protected on the high-seas, or in areas beyond national jurisdiction, are a novelty and often these areas do not benefit from any formal protection.

"These voluntary closures are a unique innovation for effectively managing and conserving deepwater biodiversity of high-seas areas where there are no regional management arrangements in place. We hope that the governments involved in meetings at the United Nations recognize these voluntary protected areas and follow their example to underpin future efforts of the proposed Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement," concluded Graeme Kelleher of the High Seas Task Force of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas. He stressed that "it is recognized that voluntary actions of this kind are extremely valuable and should be complemented by enforcement arrangements that apply to other fishing companies."



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