Ban Bottom Trawling Now

Bottom trawling is brutal. Iron teeth gouge into the seafloor. Weighted nets scrape and scour. Sealife desperately tries and fails to flee. And once the trawl has passed, the clouds of sediment clear to reveal a wasteland where there was once a thriving ocean. Broken shells, shattered coral or ripped up kelp are all that is left after everything from sharks to starfish have been hoovered up, often to be discarded dead, or dying.

It is unbelievable that this woefully destructive practice is currently permitted in a huge proportion of so-called Marine ‘Protected’ Areas around the world. In the UK, 90% of our MPAs are open to this devastation. These places can and should be havens for nature and powerhouses of ocean and climate resilience, instead they are being vandalised and destroyed.

What should give us great hope is the incredible power of the ocean. If we do ban this destructive practice from our marine havens, we know that our ocean can do extraordinary things.

After local bans around the UK, scientists and coastal communities have been astounded by the abundance and diversity of the life that comes flooding back. Electric rays and angel sharks, sunfish and sea gooseberries, delicate pink sea fans, rare sponges, fish of every colour and kind, and even whole kelp forests and seagrass meadows, teaming with life, restored once more.

In a single, simple, and cost-effective action, the UK Government could put an end to bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas, and begin to reap the benefits, from stabilising the climate to protecting our wildest places. Why the delay?

This World Ocean Day let’s create a wave of resistance that is impossible to ignore. In just a couple of minutes you can write to Environment Secretary Steve Reed and tell him: Enough. Our ocean must have space to recover and rejuvenate. Bottom trawling has no place anywhere in our ocean havens. Do it here.

As the UN Ocean Conference opens this week, our leaders will have the chance to take to an international stage and stand up for our astounding marine wildlife. Countries from Canada to Sweden, Greece, Peru, Belize and the Philippines, have made it clear that Marine Protected Areas must be free of trawling.

The writing is on the wall, the moment is now.