Scientists call out failure to protect UK seas as Labour wavers on nature
Press Release Date: February 18, 2025
Location: United Kingdom
Contact:
Daisy Brickhill | email: dbrickhill@oceana.org
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
- A group of 20 leading marine scientists have signed a letter urging the government to ban destructive bottom-trawl fishing in the UK’s marine protected areas (MPAs).
- The letter calls current MPAs “little more than lines on a map, since they remain open to highly destructive bottom trawling and dredging.”
- It also warns that protecting only parts of MPAs, such as rock or reef habitats, would not allow true recovery of marine life.
- MPAs can support thriving wildlife, sustainable livelihoods and greater resilience to the climate crisis, but only if they are truly protected, says Oceana UK, who helped to coordinate the letter.
Dear Secretary of State the Rt Hon Steve Reed,
We write to you as a group of leading marine scientists to call on the UK Government to deliver on its 30×30 commitment in practice by banning the use of bottom-towed fishing gear within UK marine protected areas (MPAs) on a whole-site basis.
As you know, UK seas are home to an incredible, diverse range of marine habitats and wildlife, from rocky reefs to kelp forests, and from dolphins and basking sharks to seahorses and sea fans. MPAs should act as havens supporting thriving wildlife, sustainable livelihoods and greater resilience to climate change. Yet, while the UK has designated more than 30% of its domestic waters as MPAs, almost all of these are currently little more than lines on a map, since they remain open to highly destructive bottom trawling and dredging.
These fishing practices are simply not compatible with meaningful marine protection: they are extremely intensive and unselective, involving the dragging of heavy nets across the seabed, which scoop up almost all life in their path. Just a single brief pass of bottom-contact fishing gear has been shown to reduce species richness of seabed invertebrates by 19% and diversity by 26%,[i] while recovery would take many years. In addition to their impact on marine life, bottom-towed fishing practices are highly carbon-intensive – due to the amount of fuel needed to tow such heavy gear – and can erode the vast organic carbon stores found in seabed habitats.[ii], [iii] This is economically unsustainable as well as environmentally destructive, with bottom trawling in UK waters economically viable only thanks to existing government fuel subsidies.[iv]
Looking to solutions, however, there are also now several studies of MPAs where bottom-towed fishing gear is no longer deployed over sediment habitats, which demonstrate the positive impacts of such restrictions. For example, recovery of mobile, bottom dwelling species associated with sedimentary habitats was demonstrated following the creation of three MPAs in Jersey that were closed to bottom-towed gear.[v] Byelaws introduced to restrict the use of bottom-towed fishing gear in four English MPA sites in 2021 and a further thirteen in 2023 are therefore a welcome start. However, in the majority of cases these byelaws provide only partial protection from destructive fishing practices as they apply to specific ‘features’ within the MPA rather than the MPA in its entirety.
Indeed, up to now, most restrictions on bottom trawling in UK MPAs have been limited to protecting specific ‘features’ within the MPA only where they occur, rather than removing bottom trawling entirely. This limits the ability of the features themselves and the marine environment in general to recover from their current degraded state. The evidence is increasingly clear that to allow true recovery of marine life, protection should be on a whole-site basis, rather than in a piecemeal fashion around individual conservation features. Within Lyme Bay, for example, total abundance of taxa over seven years increased by just 15% in a partially protected MPA, compared to 95% in a MPA fully protected from bottom trawling,[vi] with greater resilience to storm damage and other climate-driven impacts.
As a result of all these factors, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on nature conservation, states[vii] that no industrial fishing – which includes[viii] all fishing using trawling gears that are dragged or towed across the seafloor or through the water column – should take place in protected areas. We agree.
The UK led the way globally in securing the commitment to protect 30% of the world’s ocean, but action must begin at home. Bringing UK seas back to life now requires banning bottom trawling across its MPA network. As your government consults on further protections for offshore MPAs in English waters, and ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in 2025, we urge you to lead by example in ensuring that these safe havens are wholly protected, and not in name alone.
We would be delighted to meet with you, your ministers or officials to discuss this issue in greater detail.
With kind regards,
Professor Martin Attrill, Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Plymouth
Dr Maria Baker, Principal Enterprise Fellow, University of Southampton
Professor Annette Broderick, Professor of Marine Conservation, University of Exeter
Professor Clare Fitzsimmons, Professor of Marine Ecosystems and Governance, Newcastle University
Professor Brendan Godley, Professor of Conservation Science, University of Exeter
Professor Jason Hall-Spencer, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Plymouth
Professor Christina Hicks, Professor of Political Ecology, University of Lancaster
Erich Hoyt OBE, Research Fellow, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Co-Chair, IUCN Marine Mammals Protected Area Task Force
Professor Heather Koldewey, Bertarelli Foundation’s Marine Science Programme Lead, ZSL (Zoological Society of London)
Dr Abigail McQuatters-Gollop, Associate Professor of Marine Conservation, University of Plymouth
Professor Pip Moore, Professor of Marine Science, Newcastle University
Dr Daniel Pauly, University Killam Professor and principal investigator for the Seas Around US initiative, University of British Columbia
Professor Joanne Preston, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Portsmouth
Professor Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation, University of Exeter
Dr Enric Sala, Explorer in Residence, National Geographic Society
Professor Steve Simpson, Professor of Marine Biology and Global Change, University of Bristol
Dr Rashid Sumaila, Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia
Dr Ruth Thurstan, Associate Professor, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter
Professor Sandy Tudhope, Professor of Climate Studies and Co-Director of Edinburgh Ocean Leaders, University of Edinburgh
Dr Richard Unsworth, Associate Professor of Biosciences, Swansea University
Dr Meriwether Wilson, Reader in Marine Science and Policy and Co-Director of Edinburgh Ocean Leaders, University of Edinburgh
[i] Sciberras, M, Hiddink, JG, Jennings, S, Szostek, CL, Hughes, KM, Kneafsey, B, Clarke, LJ, Ellis, N, Rijnsdorp, AD, McConnaughey, RA, Hilborn, R, Collie, JS, Pitcher, CR, Amoroso, RO, Parma, AM, Suuronen, P & Kaiser, MJ. (2018), ‘Response of benthic fauna to experimental bottom fishing: A global meta-analysis’, Fish and Fisheries, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 698-715. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12283
[ii] Sala, A., Damalas, D., Labanchi, L. et al. Energy audit and carbon footprint in trawl fisheries. Sci Data 9, 428 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01478-0
[iii] Porz, L., Zhang, W., Christiansen, N., Kossack, J., Daewel, U. and Schrum, C. (2024) Quantification and mitigation of bottom-trawling impacts on sedimentary organic carbon stocks in the North Sea Biogeosciences 21 (10) https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2547-2024
[iv] Vaughan, D., Skerritt, D.J., Duckworth, J., Sumaila, U.R., & Duffy, M.J. (2023). Revisiting fuel tax concessions (FTCs): The economic implications of fuel subsidies for the commercial fishing fleet of the United Kingdom. Marine Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105763
[v] Blampied, Samantha R., Emma V. Sheehan, Martin J. Attrill, Francis CT Binney, and Sian E. Rees. “The socio-economic impact of Marine Protected Areas in Jersey: A fishers’ perspective.” Fisheries Research 259 (2023): 106555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2022.106555
[vi] Renn, Chloe, Sian Rees, Adam Rees, Bede FR Davies, Amy Y. Cartwright, Sam Fanshawe, Martin J. Attrill, Luke A. Holmes, and Emma V. Sheehan. “Lessons from Lyme Bay (UK) to inform policy, management, and monitoring of Marine Protected Areas.” ICES Journal of Marine Science 81, no. 2 (2024): 276-292. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsad204
[vii] https://www.iucncongress2020.org/motion/066
[viii] https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/resrecfiles/WCC_2020_RES_055_EN.pdf