What is bottom trawling fishing?
Bottom trawling is a method of fishing which drags heavy nets and chains along the sea floor. It’s often used to target only one or two preferred fish species, but these nets capture everything in their path.
They bulldoze fragile underwater habitats and also release carbon from the seabed, making climate change worse.
As only one or two species are wanted, more than three quarters of everything else that is caught may be thrown away (called ‘discards’). It is an incredibly wasteful and damaging method of fishing.
Bottom trawling from Ocean documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzG9AwlypaY)
Bottom trawling footage from 'Ocean with David Attenborough'
Where does bottom trawling happen?
Sadly, bottom trawling happens everywhere. Even in protected areas.
Marine Protected Areas are areas at sea designated to protect special habitats or wildlife. Although features within them are legally protected, bottom trawling is still allowed in most of these sites.
It is thought that Marine Protected Areas offshore in the UK were ploughed by bottom trawling for over 33,000 hours in 20231.
What is the impact of bottom trawling on wildlife?
Bottom trawling can be devastating to wildlife. The nets capture wildlife indiscriminately. It doesn’t matter whether that species is the target or not. This results in the death of many species which are then simply thrown away.
What is the impact of bottom trawling on the climate?
240 million tonnes of carbon is stored within just the top 10cm of sediments on the seafloor in the UK and Isle of Man.
Bottom trawling disturbs these muddy, carbon-rich sediments, releasing that carbon back into the atmosphere. The dragging of heavy nets across the seafloor also uses a lot of fossil fuels, which further contributes to climate change.
How you can help
The UK Government announced it has opened a consultation to ban bottom trawling from 41 of our English offshore MPAs to protect the seabed.
This is welcome and long overdue. We fully support protecting these seabed sites, which will not only protect the wildlife but also the carbon stored within - a win-win for nature and the climate.
Please do add your voice to our campaign to ensure these proposals don't get weakened and are implemented as rapidly as possible.
