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Coral reefs are to be protected by the State, as the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council decided in a meeting on Wednesday.
The regional fishery panel that deals with these matters proposed to them this measure that will span on Atlantic Ocean regions from New York to North Carolina, comprising a surface of nearly 38 00 square miles.
Ecology groups were very pleased about this action and salute it as an excellent measure that needed to be taken a long time ago.Hopefully, the U.S commerce secretary will approve this soon as well, but the important step in saving the ecosystem has already been done, and this is of crucial importance.
Brad Sewell, fisheries policy director with the Natural Resources Defense Council underlined one more time as well that protecting the natural habitat of the oceans is the necessary starting point in enjoying a healthy ecosystem, that would benefit everybody.
Sea coral reef are very delicate and many times it has happened that they were badly damaged by fishing equipment that reaches the bottom of the ocean and sweeps the sea floor damaging many tiny living beings that call it a home.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council emphasized the fact that these restrictions will greatly help with protecting the coral found in certain canyons that are very deep and a natural paradise for marine living creatures living on these continental margins.
Corals reach a certain height in hundreds of years and they are frequently destroyed by poacher vessels as well as by those who thoughtlessly practice recreational fishing.
Gib Brogan, fishery campaign manager for Oceana, shed light on this matter as well, underlining the fact that these reefs are important because in some of these ancient corals many species of rare fish live, so we would be dealing with a double destruction.
In the future, vessels that posses heavy fishing equipment will be allowed to transit those particular areas in the economic zones of the ocean, only if their fishing equipment is properly stowed.
Image source: nwf.org
