The UK has outlined plans to ban bottom trawling–a fishing practice that drags a net along the sea bed and is extremely destructive to ocean ecosystems–across 41 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The proposed ban affecting 30,000 square kilometers would help protect rare marine animals, as well as the delicate seabeds on which they rely, from indiscriminate and potentially irreversible damage. A consultation will invite marine and fisheries stakeholders to share their views and evidence on the prohibition.
“Bottom trawling is damaging our precious marine wildlife and habitats,” said Environment Secretary Steve Reed. “Without urgent action, our oceans will be irreversibly destroyed – depriving us, and generations to come, of the sea life on which we all enjoy. The Government is taking decisive action to ban destructive bottom trawling where appropriate.”
The proposed measures would add to the approximately 18,000 km2 of English seabed already protected from bottom-towed fishing gear. The consultation will be launched by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in partnership with Defra, and run for 12 weeks from Monday 9th June to Monday 1st September.
“For too long damaging activities have been allowed to continue within many of our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) which are supposed to protect the seabed,” said Joan Edwards, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at The Wildlife Trusts. “Removing this pressure is a great step forward towards protecting not only the wildlife and fish stocks within those sites, but also the carbon stored in the seabed muds beneath. Following this consultation, we hope that these measures will be put in place rapidly to enable recovery of these sites, a win-win for both nature and the climate.
Elsewhere at the United Nations Ocean Conference, the government pledged a further £4 million to the Global Fund for Coral Reefs bringing the UK’s total contribution to the fund up to £40 million. It also announced £2.8 million investment into the Outrigger Technical Assistance Fund to support sustainable Blue Economies in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and reiterated its commitment to agree an ambitious, legally binding plastic pollution treaty when negotiations resume in Geneva this August.
