TEHRAN – The Department of Environment (DOE) has banned any trawling in the Persian Gulf, ISNA quoted Ahmad Reza Lahijanzadeh, deputy chief of the DOE for the marine environment, as saying on Monday.

Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. Trawling can be divided into bottom trawling and midwater trawling, depending on how high the trawl (net) is in the water column.

Although trawling today is heavily regulated in some nations, it raises environmental concerns because of the lack of selectivity and the physical damage which the trawl does to the seabed.

Noting that the trawl fishing method was first carried out in the Persian Gulf about 10 years ago, Lahijanzadeh said that although this fishing method imposes a serious threat to the environment, nevertheless, illegal fishermen and sometimes even legal ones try to carry out the method.

In trawling, the fishing nets have very small holes, which does not allow the small fish to escape, and therefore catches any living creatures in the sea, he lamented.

Referring to the serious threat to marine biodiversity, he said that trawling may generate high income in the short term, but in the long term it will cause irreparable damage to the sea and many fishermen will lose their source of income or face job loss.

FB/MG