Experts at the United Nations have compiled a report calling for a moratorium on seabed trawling on the high seas to protect vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems, Japanese experts said Wednesday.
The report will be submitted this fall to a U.N. General Assembly session on environmental conservation on the high seas, they said.
Conservation groups and marine biologists are against seabed trawling, but the Japanese government and fisheries industry oppose the view that it is harmful to deep-sea habitats, claiming the argument is not sufficiently grounded in scientific fact.