2. A wide definition of destructive fishing practices would include overfishing beyond reasonable recovery, damaging levels of bycatch, fishing of spawning aggregations, bottom trawling over vulnerable habitat, and ghost fishing by discarded gear.; 3. There is no definition of destructive fishing practices. Virtually all types of fishing gear have an environmental impact, but the impact varies tremendously depending on how the gear is used and the frequency of use. The most destructive practices, such as the use of explosives, were abolished by the European Union in 1998 (Regulation 850/98 of 30 March 1998). Other practices, however, such as bottom trawls, gillnets and, in some cases, dredges, can also damage fragile ecosystems or endanger non-targeted fish species.; 1. Destructive fishing is the use of fishing gear in ways or in places such that one or more key components of an ecosystem are obliterated, devastated or rendered useless. Destructive fishing causes indiscriminate harm to marine life, in disproportion to the resulting seafood production or other human benefits, and often results in long-term damage to the physical structure of habitats. The normal consequences of the sustained harvest of fishery resources, including decreases in the abundance or biomass of target populations and associated ecosystem consequences of the decreased abundance, do not constitute destructive fishing.