UK NGO Oceana has issued a new report alleging that the UK’s offshore marine protected areas (MPAs) suffered over 20,000 hours of suspected bottom-trawl fishing last year. The organization said bottom trawling is permitted in 90% of UK MPAs.
Oceana UK’s report, The Trawled Truth, said only 38 of the UK’s 377 MPAs are fully protected by law from destructive bottom trawling. The organization relied on satellite tracking to collect its data on suspected bottom trawling in 2024.
Bottom trawlers are large, fuel-intensive vessels that drag heavy metal gear and nets–often weighing several tons–across the seafloor, hoovering up sea life and effectively bulldozing marine habitats. The organization said almost all seabed habitats around the UK are currently categorized as ‘poor status’, with bottom trawling identified as the main pressure.
The three most exploited MPAs were off the coast of Cornwall and Scotland and suffered a combined 8,597 hours of suspected bottom trawling. The Western Channel and Southwest Deeps (East) MPAs off Cornwall are home to wildlife ranging from cat sharks to cuckoo rays to threatened fan mussels. Oceana said the West of Scotland MPA boasts delicate, slow-growing corals; orange roughy, which can live for 150 years; and spawning areas of the commercially important blue ling.
“Bottom trawling is devastating our seas,” said Alyx Elliott, Campaigns Director of Oceana UK. “Across our ‘protected’ havens for nature, weighted nets are clear-felling the forests of the ocean and butchering our marine wildlife wholesale.”
Oceana said the results exclude inshore MPAs, and Norwegian vessels which could not be included due to a lack of information on their fishing gear. They said banning trawling in MPAs would be a win-win-win for nature, small-scale fishers, and the taxpayer. The benefits for the fishing industry, tourism, climate regulation and other services provided by a healthy ocean worth a net gain of £2.57-3.5 billion over 20 years could be delivered by a ban in the UK’s offshore seabed MPAs alone, previous research has estimated.
Currently the UK policy is to protect particular “features” in MPAs. But Oceana’s report cites the example of Lyme Bay, England, where partial ‘features’ protection saw an increase in abundance of marine life of 15%, but in areas where the whole site was free of trawling, that figure was 95%. Whole-site bans are also three times cheaper to enforce according to Scottish Government estimates, the report highlights.
“Safeguarding marine protected areas from bottom trawling and dredging would have wide ranging and substantial benefits for society,” said Dr. Emma Sheehan, Associate Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Plymouth. “It would help boost marine biodiversity and the abundance of commercial species inside and outside these areas, as well as helping to mitigate climate change. Banning trawling across the entirety of these sites, rather than for limited features, is especially important, since it would allow these ecosystems to rejuvenate, rather than maintaining the current poor condition.”
