seafloor

The UK government has not yet ratified the agreement, though on Monday it said a ban on a bottom "destructive" type of fishing that drags large nets along the seafloor could be extended across MPAs in England.

A ban on a "destructive" type of fishing that drags large nets along the seafloor could be extended across English waters, the government has said.

The naturalist's latest documentary Ocean With David Attenborough showed new footage of a bottom trawling net bulldozing through silt on the seafloor and scooping up species indiscriminately.

Two large pieces of construction equipment — a compact loader called a skid steer and a 20-ton crane used for driving piles into the seafloor — tumbled into the water.

“We don't know that much about the deep sea because we have explored so little,” said Jim Barry, a seafloor ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, “We should make sure we know what is there before we do much to destroy things.”