The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition’s (ASOC’s) Southern Ocean Fisheries Campaign works on five continents to stop the Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing that is dramatically depleting toothfish stocks – the most important commercial fish in the Southern Ocean. At the same time, the long-liners are killing thousands of endangered albatrosses and other seabirds each year.
ASOC is also very concerned about the ecological impacts that the action of bottom trawlers may be having in the area, particularly on fragile and unique ecosystems such as sea mounts, which are present in the Southern Ocean. Bottom trawlers scour the bottoms and destroy all marine life present in their paths, not only the target species.
