The 2025 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC) has adopted a resolution intended to end bottom trawling in international seamounts by the end of 2026.
The resolution, titled Motion 032, was adopted on 14 October with overwhelming support from the WCC, receiving yes votes from 95 percent of the state and government agency members, and 99 percent of the participating NGOs and organizations representing Indigenous People.
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) Co-founder and Policy Advisor Matthew Gianni said that the new resolution “builds on nearly two decades of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions and legal obligations that require States and RFMOs [regional fishery management organizations ] to prevent the impacts of bottom fishing on vulnerable marine ecosystems, including seamounts, and protect biodiversity in the marine environment.”
“By adopting Motion 32, IUCN Members have reinforced the need to fully translate long-standing international commitments and legal obligations into concrete protection of the deep sea,” he said.
Seamounts are underwater mountains that often serve as hubs of biodiversity and feeding grounds for numerous ocean life forms.
Bottom trawling involves using weighted nets which drag across the sea floor. Those advocating against it say that it causes damage to vulnerable ecosystems that can–in the case of coral and seamounts–take hundreds or even thousands of years to regrow. Advocates for the practice say that while bottom trawling, like all commercial fishing, has environmental costs, it is not responsible for the wide swath of harms its detractors assign to it.
For instance, in the months leading up to the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference – where bottom trawling was discussed extensively from both conservation and industry perspectives – the International Coalition of Fisheries Associations (ICFA) issued a resolution asking leaders to consider the nuances of bottom trawling’s sustainability, and reminding them of the role trawling plays in global food security.
“Sustainable fishing must be recognized as part of the solution to global environmental and food challenges," ICFA Chair Ivan López Van de Veen said at the time of that resolution. “Trawling, when conducted responsibly, is indeed sustainable and an efficient method of fishing.”
In a release about the 14 October resolution, however, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) said that Motion 032 is supported by “scientific evidence accumulated over the past two decades that show seamounts and the species and ecosystems they support to be unique, structurally complex, and fragile. Numerous studies have consistently demonstrated that bottom trawling on seamounts causes widespread, irreversible degradation of deep-sea ecosystems.”
Additionally, DSCC pointed to a 2021 assessment conducted by the United Nations that found that “Fishing, especially bottom trawling, constitutes the greatest current threat to seamount ecosystems.”
DSCC Global Seamounts Campaign Director Bronwen Golder said that the new resolution “represents a tangible step towards ocean protection.”
“With the recently-ratified High Seas Treaty, 2030 fast approaching with the goal to protect at least 30% of our ocean, and next year’s UN Bottom Fisheries Review, it is a critical time to be putting the protection of all seamounts at the heart of global ocean conservation," Golder said.
The resolution is now destined for a 2026 review by the U.N. General Assembly.
It was led by the DSCC and WWF Australia, with support from the Marine Conservation Institute, the Blue Marine Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Environmental and Conservations Organizations of New Zealand, and the Australian Foundation for Wilderness.
