Pressure grows to ban 'madness of bottom trawling' 

Mackerel feeding. Bottom trawling is a fishing practice that herds and captures target species, such as crabs and ground fish, by towing a net along the ocean floor.

Biodiversity campaigners have gathered 150,000 signatures in the EU as they urge the European Commission to ban bottom trawling.

Non-governmental organisations  including  Oceana, Seas At Risk, Our Fish, WeMove Europe, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Environmental Justice Foundation presented a petition to commissioner for the environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, demanding an end to the practice.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, bottom trawling is a fishing practice that herds and captures target species, such as crabs and ground fish, by towing a net along the ocean floor.

While the practice is lucrative to fishermen, the adminstration says it is increasingly harmful to marine life outside of fish as it scoops up so many other species outside of the intended target.

"Marine mammals can become entangled by trawl gear when swimming to forage or migrate, with risks differing widely between species. Species that forage on or near the sea floor are at risk of being captured or entangled in netting or tow lines," the adminstration said.

Pilot whales and common dolphins in the Atlantic are particularly susceptible, according to theadminstration.

According to the campaigners who presented the petition to Commissioner Sinkevičius, bottom trawling "is widely used in Europe where it impacts more than 50% of the seabed, and even takes place inside marine protected areas".

The petition said: "Fishing nets as tall as a three-storey building and as wide as a football field scoop up the seabed everyday. In seconds, these nets destroy everything in their path, killing dolphins, seals, corals, seahorses and hundreds of other marine species."

Senior director of advocacy at Oceana in Europe, Vera Coelho, said: "Marine protected areas, as the name suggests, are supposed to afford protection to marine life, yet in 2020 over 2.5m hours of bottom trawling took place inside them. 

"It is unacceptable that the EU continues condoning the destruction of the very places it has committed to protect. This madness can and must be fixed now, for good.”

Oceana analysed satellite tracking-data of fishing boats in 2020.

It found that five German sites are within the top 10 most bottom-trawled sites in Europe, while French, Dutch, and Danish sites were particularly vulnerable, its analysis found.

Seas At Risk marine policy director  Tobias Troll said a just transition was needed to low-impact fisheries to protect biodiversity and allow future generations of small scale fishermen and coastal communities to have a good life.

Just transition is the term used to describe making sure employment opportunities and societal benefits are present for those who may live and work in communities tied to legacy energy industries, such as coal mining or peat extraction.

Our Fish programme director Rebecca Hubbard said governments and institutions cannot just continue with pledges and promises forever as time ran out and every ton of carbon counts. 

"It’s time that the EU got serious about transitioning out of destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling, which produces CO2 emissions through burning fuel, releasing carbon stored in the seabed, and depleting fish populations, and instead secured a sustainable and resilient future for our climate, ocean and coastal communities," she said.