Unalaska, AK – Nearly 180,000 square miles of the northern and western Bering Sea will be closed to bottom trawling starting on August 25. The new regulation enacted by the National Marine Fisheries Service protects areas that have not previously been affected by the fishing method.

"This is a real precautionary and ecosystem based management approach," said Jon Warrenchuk, an Ocean Scientist for the environmental group Oceana. "One thing you want to do is prevent damage to habitat, especially habitat that things like fish and seafloor invertebrates rely on. And we know that bottom trawls damage habitat along the sea floor."

Warrenchuk says the area is designated for research and is set aside until scientists understand more about the ecosystem, the species in region, including marine mammals and spotted eiders, and how climate change affects the region.

"We do know that the first pass of a bottom trawl is the most damaging. By preventing that first pass from happening," he said, "particularly when you are catching enough fish in the rest of the Bering Sea which is open to bottom trawling then you are preventing unnecessary damage in areas" that have not been previously touched.

The National Academy of Sciences reports that bottom trawlers have negative impacts on seafloor habitats, destroying corals and sponges.

The new regulations will not affect the pollock fleet. Warrenchuck says most blackfish and cod quotas are already filled in open fishing grounds, so the new regulations should not affect those fisheries either.