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Only 2.9% of the ocean is officially safeguarded under “high protection.” In December 2022, at COP15, world leaders finally committed to protect 30% by 2030. Now it’s time to hold them to their promise.
The shocking answer is yes, bottom trawling is allowed in marine protected areas in the EU.
In fact, 59% of Europe's so-called marine “protected” areas (MPAs) are regularly trawled, often at higher levels than unprotected areas — with vulnerable wildlife at greater risk within the boundaries of these supposed sanctuaries. As long as destructive activities like bottom trawling remain legal in protected areas, scientists estimate that less than 1% of the EU’s waters are truly protected. In other words, 99% of European seas are at risk of continued and irreversible ecological destruction.
From safeguarding endangered species to increasing fishers’ catches, the benefits of MPAs are effectively lost if bottom trawling is not banned.
True marine protected areas:
Act as critical refuges for biodiversity, securing healthy habitats for endangered and sensitive species.
Increase the biological and economic productivity of the fishing industry, bolstering fish stocks, within and outside MPAs, and even increasing the individual size of the fish caught.
Mitigate global warming and its effects, enhancing carbon storage via the protection of essential seagrass, sandbanks, and coral ecosystems — which further cushion coastlines against the impacts of storm surges and severe weather.
Yet bottom trawling is routinely damaging MPAs across the EU, with millions of hours of destructive trawling recorded in protected sites over less than a decade. A clear-cut forest is not protected. Neither is a trawled ocean.
It is hypocritical and unproductive to allow bottom trawling in protected areas, threatening ocean health, public health, the sustainability of the fishing industry, and biodiversity conservation goals.