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WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 20 nations agreed Friday to discourage unregulated and destructive bottom trawling on the South Pacific high seas, a victory for environmental groups.
The agreement, which takes effect Sept. 30, is intended to protect about a quarter of the world's high seas, a vast area extending roughly from the Equator to the Antarctic Circle and from Australia and New Zealand to the west coast of South America.
Observers and ship locator monitoring systems are to be used, and vessels must remain at least five nautical miles from deep-water corals and other vulnerable marine ecosystems.
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