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> Bottom trawlers scraping large nets across the sea floor have already affected 20 million square miles of ocean, turning parts of the continental shelf to rub

by stolio 12y ago

> Bottom trawlers scraping large nets across the sea floor have already affected 20 million square miles of ocean, turning parts of the continental shelf to rubble. That's a number I wouldn't have guessed, that's about 1/7th of the ocean floor.

lugg 12y ago
If thats 1/7th of the total ocean floor, what percentage is it of the accessible / usable ocean floor?
- stolio 12y ago
  I would really like to know. NOAA has a really impressive map here[0] (with a really impressive name) but I don't think it's set up for "surface area of ocean above X elevation." However, I would expect dragging to occur in shallower waters rich in life because economically we're looking to extract maximum value. I'm worried that might roughly correlate to maximum damage. (Sure we could do more damage if we tried, we could bomb a coral reef, but we're essentially mining for certain lifeforms from an ecosystem.) [0] - http://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/bathymetry/ http://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/bathymetry/
- 001sky 12y ago
  Continental shelf is approx 10% of the sea-surface area.
madaxe_again 12y ago
We'll get the other 6/7ths in the next few years - the free-for-all on deep-sea mining starts this year. To get an idea of what that looks like, see http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/18/namibia-diamonds-idUSL6N0OZ1QA20140618 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/18/namibia-diamonds-i... - destruction on an insane scale, and by killing all sea-floor biomass, marine food chains and the terrestrial food chains which depend on them are disrupted. It's this rather shady bunch (International Seabed Authority) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Seabed_Authority http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Seabed_Authority who are in charge - it's staffed by members of mining consortiums, and the current president is a patsy. But hey, who cares, you can eat gold! Oh wait, you can't.
lsjroberts 12y ago
And we've only explored about 5% (7 million square miles) - http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html

by stolio 12y ago

lugg 12y ago

If thats 1/7th of the total ocean floor, what percentage is it of the accessible / usable ocean floor?

stolio 12y ago
I would really like to know. NOAA has a really impressive map here[0] (with a really impressive name) but I don't think it's set up for "surface area of ocean above X elevation." However, I would expect dragging to occur in shallower waters rich in life because economically we're looking to extract maximum value. I'm worried that might roughly correlate to maximum damage. (Sure we could do more damage if we tried, we could bomb a coral reef, but we're essentially mining for certain lifeforms from an ecosystem.) [0] - http://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/bathymetry/ http://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/bathymetry/
001sky 12y ago
Continental shelf is approx 10% of the sea-surface area.

madaxe_again 12y ago

We'll get the other 6/7ths in the next few years - the free-for-all on deep-sea mining starts this year. To get an idea of what that looks like, see http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/18/namibia-diamonds-idUSL6N0OZ1QA20140618 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/18/namibia-diamonds-i... - destruction on an insane scale, and by killing all sea-floor biomass, marine food chains and the terrestrial food chains which depend on them are disrupted. It's this rather shady bunch (International Seabed Authority) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Seabed_Authority http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Seabed_Authority who are in charge - it's staffed by members of mining consortiums, and the current president is a patsy. But hey, who cares, you can eat gold! Oh wait, you can't.

lsjroberts 12y ago

And we've only explored about 5% (7 million square miles) - http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html