Conservation Efforts
On 23 October 2001, UK Minister Margaret Beckett made a commitment at WWF's Oceans Recovery Summit in Edinburgh to protect the Darwin Mounds. The summit launched the Edinburgh Declaration, targeting politicians and marine stakeholders alike to sign up to action to safeguard the seas. Deep water bottom trawling had been occurring in the area, with nets as heavy as one tonne dragged across the sea floor. Researcher Jason Hall-Spencer of the University of Glasgow had found pieces of coral at least 4,500 years old in the nets of trawlers operating off the coast of Ireland and Scotland. Pieces of coral up to one metre square were found in the nets of French trawling vessels that had been scraping the seabed one kilometre down. It is known that much coral was destroyed by these nets and the mounds themselves in some areas were found to be scraped and flattened. The mounds are ancient structures and this damage is permanent.
After the discovery of the mounds, three well documented surveys of the area were undertaken, one in June 1998 (Bett 1999), August 1999 (Bett & Jacobs 2000,) and twice during summer 2000 (B. Bett, pers. comm.). Instruments deployed during the studies have included side-scan sonar, stills and video cameras and piston corers. However, we will never know the entirety of what was lost during the period of time when the heavy netted fishing trawlers were operating above the mounds. On 22 March 2004 EU Fisheries Ministers in Brussels finally agreed to give permanent protection to Scotland's unique cold-water coral reefs, recognising the Darwin Mounds as an important habitat. As of 2004 deep-water bottom trawling in the area has been made illegal.
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