MY FISHERIES contacts in Scotland are ruing the fact that little is being done to protect the rich reef systems that surround submarine mountains rising from the deep north Atlantic floor. Spanish and French trawlers continue to dredge these structures, so I asked ministers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what their department was doing to protect two specific seamounts, namely the Anton Dohrn and the Rosemary Bank to the west of Scotland.
Ben Bradshaw, the minister with responsibility for biodiversity and fisheries, replied that seamounts are not at present among the habitats listed in the European…
