West Briton Destruction in the depths is invisible, and so it's ignored

EVEN though we live in a county almost entirely surrounded by water, the closest most of us will ever come to the denizens of the deep sea is consuming them deep-friend in batter, with chips and possibly curry sauce, and so it's understandably difficult to imagine what bottom trawling does to the ecosystem which sustains marine life around our shores and the fisheries on which many jobs in Cornwall still rely.

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Bottom trawling, as we report today, involves dragging nets and gear sometimes several tonnes in weight over the sea floor and, in the words of one conservation group, "hoovering up" every living thing in its path.