A device for sampling seafloor diversity. © AMNH   Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of Stock Over the past several decades, people have become increasingly aware that the destruction of tropical forests is causing great biodiversity loss. “It is difficult to imagine that another severe human disturbance of even greater extent could occur almost unnoticed by scientists, the media, and political leaders. But there is one: fishing on the seabed with towed gear such as trawls and dredges,” write Watling and Elliott A. Norse of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in a controversial paper published in December 1998. In heavily trawled areas, the ocean floor becomes a flattened wasteland. Along with destroying habitat, trawling literally empties the sea. Any creature larger than the holes in the net is caught in its vast reach.      2 of 23