Bottom trawling exacerbates the climate crisis, emitting millions of tons of CO2 through disturbed marine sediments and burning more fossil fuel than other fisheries. In fact, some bottom-trawled seafood has a carbon footprint larger than livestock. This destructive practice physically disturbs 79% of the EU’s coastal seabed, resuspending sediment equivalent to global river deposits annually. It devastates benthic ecosystems, with recovery times for damaged seabed communities stretching up to 15 years, if recovery is even possible.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are critical in reversing these impacts. Fully protected MPAs restore biodiversity, enhance ecosystem resilience, and act as climate refuges. They safeguard blue carbon habitats like seagrass meadows, which produce five times more oxygen than the Amazon rainforest and store nearly twice as much carbon as terrestrial soils. But bottom trawling occurs in 59% of the EU's MPAs, undermining their potential. Research even shows trawling intensity inside some MPAs exceeds that of unprotected areas.
