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REEFS of coral older than the pyramids at Giza are being trashed by fishing
boats trawling the deep water off Britain鈥檚 coast.

European countries are constantly pleading with developing nations to protect
coral reefs in tropical countries. But it turns out that their fishing boats are
destroying reefs of equal importance in their own waters.

Jason Hall-Spencer of the University of Glasgow has found pieces of coral at
least 4500 years old in the nets of trawlers operating off Ireland and Scotland.
鈥淰ery few people know about these deep-water reefs, but conservation areas are
urgently needed to protect them,鈥� he says.

As fish stocks collapse on Europe鈥檚 continental shelf, trawlers are heading
beyond the edge of the shelf to catch exotic species such as roundnose
grenadiers and Portuguese dogfish. The weights used to hold open the nets can
weigh a tonne and are turning the coral to rubble.

Hall-Spencer has found pieces of coral up to a metre square in the nets of
French trawlers scraping the seabed 1 kilometre down. 鈥淭hese deep-water coral
systems are especially fragile because, unlike shallow-water reefs, they are not
adapted to cope with minor disturbance such as wave action,鈥� he says. Oil
prospectors are also likely to rip the reefs to shreds.

Areas that are in greatest need of protection include the Darwin Mounds
鈥攁 range of sand mounds north-west of Scotland鈥檚 Cape Wrath鈥攁nd the
deep waters that are near the islet of Rockall, several hundred kilometres west
of the Isle of Skye.