UNITED NATIONS — Despite intense negotiations that lasted into the early-morning hours, countries seeking a ban on bottom trawling in unregulated international waters failed Thursday to get United Nations support for the proposal.

Canada is pleased with the outcome as it has been arguing that stronger fisheries management would be more effective than a ban.

But environmentalists are dismayed, calling the UN approach weak and ineffective.

Bottom trawling is a fishing method in which a giant net weighed down by steel gates is dragged along the ocean floor to scoop up bottom feeders. Environmental groups say it causes irreparable harm to deep-sea ecosystems, destroying coral reefs and seamounts normally teeming with ocean life.

Activists singled out Iceland for blocking a UN consensus on a moratorium.

They said although Canada, Japan, South Korea and the European Union are known opponents of the ban, these countries had shown some willingness to find common ground with strong proponents such as Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Palau.

Canadian government representatives at the talks expressed satisfaction with the draft resolution that did emerge from the talks.

"It is a huge step forward," says Lori Ridgeway, head of Canada's delegation in New York.

Instead of the proposed blanket ban on bottom trawling on the high seas, the countries agreed to enhance protection measures under regional fisheries management organizations - or RFMO. These organizations will decide how environmental assessments and enforcement would be carried out.

For unregulated areas in international waters, national governments are directed to police their own flagged vessels, applying basically the same standards as they would under the regional management organizations. If actual harm to the ocean is found occurring, governments would then apply restrictions on their national vessels at their own discretion.

Speaking in Ottawa, Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said the agreement applies to countries that don't currently belong to the regional management organizations and will protect fish stocks and sensitive areas.

"We have the opportunity now collectively to clean up what's been going on in the ocean for a number of years," Hearn said.

"The question now is will everyone live up to commitments made? And if not, we have all kinds of tools - force, the right of law, shame, isolation, pressure - you name it. If someone steps outside this collective agreement that we've made, life can be pretty miserable for them."

But Susanna Fuller of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax said the UN decision would allow trawlers to expand their operations and continue ravaging the ocean floor.

"Essentially, it's the status quo," Fuller said in New York.

"One of the huge problems that we have right now is flag states that are fishing irresponsibly on the high seas, and now those states can continue to fish the same way they've been fishing."

Jennifer Lash of the Living Oceans Society said: "An interim prohibition would have been much more effective and would have ensured that flag states were accountable, before allowing fishing."

The Fisheries Council of Canada said the resolution "respects the environment and the people who work in the industry."

Patrick McGuinness, the council's president, said: "Blunt instruments such as across the board bans do not work and, in this instance, would result in the perverse outcome of benefiting flag-of-convenience vessels that disregard all regulations."

"Responsible fishing nations, such as Canada, will use the resolution to bring forward precautionary and targeted regulations that will govern their fishing vessels when they encounter sensitive areas such as seamounts, concentrations of deep sea corrals, etc."

Canada has a fleet of bottom trawlers operating within Canadian waters. Its concern has been that a moratorium on the high seas could later be expanded to cover areas within national jurisdiction.

Ridgeway said "Canada played an instrumental role - if not the instrumental role - in helping these talks conclude successfully."

But supporters of the ban said Canada's stance compromised prospects for stronger UN protections. "They were not instrumental in a progressive sense, but did work to get text in about assessment of bottom trawling," Fuller commented.

The UN General Assembly is expected to adopt the draft resolution by consensus on Dec. 7.