A new report from NGO Oceana UK has estimated that 20,000 hours of bottom trawling took place in the United Kingdom’s offshore marine protected areas (MPAs) in 2024.
“For a thriving seafood industry, you have to have a healthy ocean,” Oceana UK Campaigns Director Alyx Elliott told SeafoodSource. “As anyone working in fisheries knows, marine ecosystems are delicate, they’re interconnected, and they’re transient. Anyone who's fishing in the surrounding areas where this is happening should be extremely concerned about what's going on, and we would really welcome them joining us in a call about bottom trawling and marine protected areas."
The report said that 90 percent of the U.K.'s MPAs are open to trawling, but Elliott said that a bottom-trawling ban is in the fishing industry’s long-term best interest.
This move, Elliott said, has worked in the past, referencing a case study of Lyme Bay, where bottom trawling had been banned in a protected area. Though it took a decade for the area to recover, commercially caught fish species increased in abundance by 370 percent in the area, she said, and the biodiversity increased by 430 percent 10 years after the ban was put in place.
“If you look at this in terms of economics, outside of the [MPA], there were lobster potters and static gear fishers and a study showed that there was an average rise in earnings of GBP 1,450 [USD 1,937] per boat per month for those people," she said. “We’re not trying to stop anyone from fishing. We know how important it is for people’s livelihoods.”
She said that any ban, if it were to come to fruition, would need to come with an assurance on the part of the government to the fishing industry that support would be provided as changes took effect, as some fishery stakeholders were likely to lose profit in the short term.
However, the report said that long-term profits would be substantial, with the U.K.’s economy seeing a potential cumulative net economic gain of GBP 3.5 billion (USD 4.7 billion) over a 20-year period.
Besides the fishing industry, Elliott also said that her organization was concerned about the British public's lack of understanding about the issue.
“When we present [the issue] to the public, they’re always incredibly shocked that the MPAs are not genuinely protected,” she said. “We’ve spoken to members of the public who are just outraged. As soon as they learn that this is not actually protected ... they’re like, ‘Am I being lied to?'”
The report comes amid increased scrutiny of trawling in the lead-up to the 7 June release of David Attenborough’s documentary entitled "Ocean."
A National Geographic press release about the film said that it “zeroes in on the human actions leading to oceanic collapse and the effects of destructive fishing techniques, such as dredging and bottom trawling, on entire marine ecosystems, coastal communities, and the global climate.”
In response to advance clips, the Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC) stated in a 16 May release that despite the film’s portrayal, the FCC remains committed to sustainable fishing practices.
FCC President Jason McLinton said that “healthy oceans are not just an environmental necessity but the foundation of our members’ livelihoods and Canada’s fishing heritage.”
