How is a seamount formed
What Are Seamounts?
not all mountains are covered in trees
or snow some mountains like this one in
Chile are entirely below the sea surface
via submarine mountains called sea
mounts can range from three thousand to
over ten thousand feet tall
taken together sea mounts cover 11
million square miles more than any one
land-based habitats like deserts or
forests these ocean mountains are
hotbeds of marine life nutrient-rich
water flows up their slopes nurturing
corals sponges and fish many species are
endemic to just one sea mount meaning
they live there and nowhere else
sea mounts also attract migratory
species like whales tuna and sharks
which come to feed and meat
where there are fish fishermen aren't
far behind we catch about 3 million tons
of fish from sea mounts every year
scientists say that's far too much fish
like orange roughy which live along the
deep parts of sea mounts can take
decades to reach maturity commercial
fishing can quickly decimate such slow
growing species and to catch these fish
fishermen often use a particularly
destructive form of gear called a bottom
troll bottom trolls plow through fragile
sea mount ecosystems smashing corals and
sponges that can be hundreds or
thousands of years old
luckily in many places sea mounds are
getting the protection they deserve in
2015 for example Sheila became the first
country to ban bottom trawling on its
sea mounts and with new protections this
year all of California's major sea
mounts are now off-limits to trolls
[Music]
these are mountains we'll never climb
but it doesn't mean we can't appreciate
their beauty and abundance
[Music]
