European campaign calls on EU leaders to ban destructive fishing, like bottom trawling, in marine protected areas
Ocean Advocates Launch Campaign to Ban Destructive Fishing in Marine Protected Areas
Leading European ocean advocacy groups have launched the “Protect Our Catch” campaign, calling on French President Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission to ban destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs). The campaign is supported by organisations including BLOOM, Blue Marine Foundation, Oceana, and the Environmental Justice Foundation, and aims to protect marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of small-scale fishers.
In letters sent to President Macron and EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis, the campaign warned that without urgent action, Europe’s MPAs risk becoming “paper parks,” devoid of meaningful marine life protection.
Threats Posed by Bottom Trawling
The organisations claim bottom trawling involves dragging heavy nets along the seabed, damaging ecosystems, disturbing marine sediments, and releasing CO2. It is one of the largest contributors to biodiversity loss in MPAs. Advocacy groups stressed that this practice threatens both marine life and the future of traditional, low-impact fishing practices.
“Bottom trawling in MPAs is incompatible with sustainable fishing,” said Federico Gelmi, a fisher from Italy. “The science is clear, and the fishing tells the same story: we need to protect our ocean if we are to continue fishing.”
Isaac Moya, a fisherman from Catalunya, urged the Commissioner to take a stand for sustainable practices, saying “As small-scale fishers, we rely on traditional, low-impact methods that respect the ocean and our culture. However, industrial and bottom trawling in marine protected areas threaten our future. To ensure the continuity of our profession, it is essential to protect and promote artisanal fishing.”
Calls for Stronger Leadership and Enforcement
The campaign accused France of failing to deliver on previous commitments to protect biodiversity. Claire Nouvian, Founder and Director of BLOOM, said, “Today, France is responding to the climate, social and environmental emergency with inaction and deception. This must and can change: we have no choice, as all scientists say, but to stop destroying the ocean and to finally protect it. The future of the ocean, the climate, and humanity, lies in the balance. President Macron must rise to the challenge and respond to the challenges we face by creating genuine marine protected areas, free from industrial infrastructure and activities such as trawling, by excluding mega-trawlers from our territorial waters, in order to protect ecosystems and coastal fishers, and by advocating for a treaty and legislation on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels”
Clare Brook, CEO of the Blue Marine Foundation, said: “Bottom trawling is a damaging and indiscriminate fishing method which ploughs up precious habitats, decimates biodiversity and depletes the ocean’s ability to sequester carbon. Yet this highly destructive type of fishing is still allowed in the majority of marine protected areas. We must ensure that bottom trawling is excluded from all marine protected areas without exception.”
Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), said: “Most European ‘Marine Protected Areas’ are just lines on a map, paper parks which do nothing to stop the ongoing destruction of vital habitats. The laws are clear, and the science is unequivocal. Bottom trawling is incompatible with marine protected areas, and we urgently need action to ban it.
“79% of the EU’s coastal seabed is physically disturbed, primarily because of this trawling, with a quarter of the EU’s coastal area likely having lost its natural seabed habitats. I call on our leaders to stand up for wildlife, people, and our ocean now.”
Nicolas Fournier, Campaign Director at Oceana in Europe, said: “As political momentum is growing ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in June, EU leaders can’t continue to ignore the public outcry about the destruction of protected areas by bottom trawling, as hundreds of thousands of EU citizens want meaningful marine protection.
We urge the European Commission to particularly recognise in its future Ocean Pact how MPAs help protect fishers’ livelihoods and support coastal communities, including to counter the impacts of climate change on people.”
Economic and Environmental Benefits
Tatiana Nuño, Senior Marine Policy Officer at Seas At Risk, said: “At a time when the EU is laser-focused on competitiveness, it’s vital that MPAs are recognised as key to building a sustainable blue economy that promotes both a healthy ocean and a healthy economy. Not only do MPAs help recover fish stocks and support sustainable fishing jobs – they also benefit the EU economy, with projections showing that a ban on bottom trawling in them would create a cumulative profit of more than €8 billion over 20 years.
“If Commissioner Kadis is serious about creating an EU Ocean Pact that delivers for people and the planet alike, then it’s high time the taboo around banning bottom trawling is cast aside.”
Source: Press Release