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A new report, co-authored by Marine Conservation Society, Seas at Risk and Oceana looks at destructive bottom trawling in 7 EU Member States’ marine Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and urges the European Commission to ban bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas.
This report uses Global Fishing Watch data which pulls the information from vessels Automated Identification Systems (AIS) systems to see how much fishing is happening within protected areas. AIS is only required in vessels over 15m in length and this system can also be turned off. With these data it’s been found that 4.4 million hours of apparent bottom trawling has occurred in SACs in these 7 Member States between 2015 – 2023 and damaging fishing is still taking place in 90% of offshore EU SAC’s.
Bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves one or more boats pulling heavy fishing nets along the ocean floor in an effort to catch fish and other marine species. It is one of the most destructive fishing methods, resulting in ecosystem loss, the release of carbon stored in the seabed, and high levels of bycatch and fish discards (92% of all EU fish discards come from bottom trawled catches). This negatively impacts both the sustainability of fish populations and the fishing industry itself, especially small-scale and low-impact fishers that account for 80% of the active European fleet and 50% of jobs in the sector.
Ireland’s results don’t paint a pretty picture for the management of our protected areas as bottom towed fishing overlapped with over 4,000km2 of ‘protected’ Irish seabed. While the report only looks at 144 marine SAC’s (Ireland has 112 marine Special Protection Areas (SPAs) which were not looked at in the analysis) it was shown that over 19,000 hours of destructive fishing has occurred within these areas between 2015-2023.
135 (94%) of these areas are inshore areas and the analysis doesn’t take into account smaller vessels which are also bottom trawling (including dredging which is a practice used in different forms of aquaculture such as razor clams). So the amount of destructive trawling within these areas is vastly underrepresented. Saying this, it still still shows that there is a clear lack of management within our protected areas.
The EU Marine Action Plan asks countries to set out national roadmaps to ban bottom trawling in MPAs, starting with those with ecologically important seabed features by the end of 2024, and across all MPAs by 2030. Last week Greece announced that it will ban bottom trawling in all it’s national parks and marine protected areas. Member states were due to submit their EU Action Plan roadmaps by the 31st of March 2024. Ireland has not submitted their roadmap and they have not replied to any correspondence from the IWT asking for information on the progress and content of these roadmaps. While these roadmaps are not legally binding, the failure to provide them to the European Commission shows a lack of ambition at effectively protecting our MPAs.
Grace Carr, Marine Advocacy Officer said, ‘Bottom trawling is the most destructive form of fishing. It destroys the seabed, is completely indiscriminate in what it catches and the levels of bycatch are staggering. We only have 9.4% of Irish waters designated as ‘protected’ and yet destructive fishing still occurs within these areas. Bottom trawling should be banned within all MPAs and the IWT stands behind the call to EU leaders to take tougher action against EU countries that still allow bottom trawling in their protected areas. We are asking Irish leaders to start putting better management plans in place for inshore fisheries so that small scale fishers can make a sustainable living and we can see the end of this outdated damaging practice.’
Ireland has a rich culture of fishing which spans generations. If we want this aspect of Irish life to continue, we need to start looking after the waters around us and the species within it. Bottom trawling destroys ecosystems, ruining opportunities for biodiversity to thrive and for the fishing communitie to make a living. It has no place in any Marine Protected Area.
CONTACT:
Grace Carr, grace@iwt.ie