The UK government has announced a proposed ban on bottom trawling in 41 offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), according to a statement on 9 June.
“The measures would help protect rare marine animals, as well as the delicate seabeds on which they rely, from indiscriminate and potentially irreversible damage,” says Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the announcement.
“This announcement by the UK Government to protect our Marine Protected Areas from bottom trawling marks a huge step forward in restoring our marine environment,” says Gareth Cunningham, Director of Conservation and Policy at the Marine Conservation Society. “For far too long, vulnerable ocean habitats have suffered from damaging practices.”
“The recreational fishing community welcomes this long-anticipated announcement,” says Hannah Rudd, Head of Marine at the Angling Trust. "Our seas urgently need space to recover – and this move to ban bottom-towed fishing in 41 Marine Protected Areas is a crucial step in the right direction.”
Many NGOs have been campaigning for the ban. “There's been a watertight scientific and economic case around the need to stop bottom trawling in these marine protected areas,” says Hugo Tagholm, Executive Director and Vice President of Oceana in the UK. Currently, only 38 of the UK’s 377 MPAs are fully protected from bottom trawling, according to the charity.
Not everyone agrees. The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) put out a statement criticising the proposed ban. “It will not produce outcomes that work for the environment and it will be devastating for the fishing families whose lives and livelihoods it ruins,” it says.
This isn’t anti-fishing, rebuts Tagholm. “This is anti- the wrong type of fishing in protected areas.” He adds that allowing marine ecosystems to recover will also allow fishers to benefit from rebounding fish stocks.
“We want to put the power back in the hands of those local fishers,” he says. “It’s not the multinationals who are struggling in the overfishing crisis. It's the small guys on the coastline who are having their catch taken away from them by the big companies.”
Considering the features of the habitat itself is important, says Sarah Coulthard, senior lecturer in marine social science at Newcastle University: “MPAs are designated to protect a wide range of our wildlife and habitat, many for example protect species of birds or marine mammals, where interactions with trawling are minimal,” she says. “There is no point in banning trawling if your protected feature is a puffin,” she says.
The 41 proposed sites are based on certain types of seabed habitats that are more sensitive to bottom towed gear. It’s important that this is clearly distinguished from calls for a total ban across all MPAs, she says: “We need a just transition to reduce environmental damage that results from all food production (not just trawling) and this means working in partnership with fishermen and understanding they are part of the solution, rather than just being proclaimed as the problem.”
As well as benefiting the environment, healthy seas help store carbon, remove pollution and provide food and livelihoods to many people. According to the Marine Conservation Society, protecting MPAs from activities deemed damaging could create benefits valued at between £2.57 billion and £3.5 billion over 20 years.
There will now be a consultation period running until September to give stakeholders the opportunity to share their views on the proposed measures.
Main image: Cornwall, England. Credit: Getty
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