European leaders have received a fresh call to ban destructive fishing practices in marine protected areas (MPAs) and to simultaneously provide support for small-scale fishing sectors and marine ecosystems.
Protect Our Catch is a new European campaign supported by ocean advocates BLOOM, Blue Marine Foundation, Empesca’t, Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana, Only One, Seas At Risk and Tara Ocean Foundation. It has sent letters to French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis insisting that without urgent action on destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling, Europe’s MPAs risk being stripped of marine life, with devastating consequences for small-scale fishers, biodiversity and the fight against climate change.
The campaign argues that bottom trawling continues to devastate marine ecosystems and biodiversity, including in MPAs, and that it is the leading contributor of CO2 release through heavy fuel consumption and disturbance of marine sediments.
Furthermore, it suggests that bottom trawling has a detrimental impact on small-scale fishers and local economies, and is therefore putting coastal communities in jeopardy.
Noting that in June 2022, Macron said the world must “set ambitious goals for biodiversity and especially for ocean”, the campaign insists the country has failed to make any “meaningful progress” on banning destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling in its protected areas, a stance that threatens France’s claim to be a steward of the ocean.
Simultaneously, it has urged EU leadership in the Parliament and Commission, including Commissioner Kadis, to double down on enforcement of existing EU regulations, especially the Habitats Directive, and take action to end destructive fishing such as bottom trawling in MPAs.
Protect Our Catch and its members will campaign throughout the year in Brussels for this action.
Catalunya fisherman and co-founder of sustainable fisheries collective Empesca’t, Isaac Moya said he wants Kadis to take a stand for sustainable practices.
“As small-scale fishers, we rely on traditional, low-impact methods that respect the ocean and our culture. However, industrial and bottom trawling in marine protected areas threaten our future. To ensure the continuity of our profession, it is essential to protect and promote artisanal fishing.”
Federico Gelmi, a low-impact fisher, from Pantelleria, Italy, said: “Bottom trawling in MPAs is incompatible with sustainable fishing. The science is clear and the fishing tells the same story, we need to protect our ocean if we are to continue fishing.”
Meanwhile, BLOOM Founder & General Director Claire Nouvian said that France is responding to the climate, social and environmental emergency with inaction and deception.
“This must and can change: we have no choice, as all scientists say, but to stop destroying the ocean and to finally protect it. The future of the ocean, the climate, and humanity, lies in the balance. President Macron must rise to the challenge and respond to the challenges we face by creating genuine marine protected areas, free from industrial infrastructure and activities such as trawling, by excluding mega-trawlers from our territorial waters, in order to protect ecosystems and coastal fishers, and by advocating for a treaty and legislation on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels,” she said.
EJF CEO and Founder Steve Trent said: “Most European ‘Marine Protected Areas’ are just lines on a map, paper parks which do nothing to stop the ongoing destruction of vital habitats. The laws are clear, and the science is unequivocal. Bottom trawling is incompatible with marine protected areas, and we urgently need action to ban it. 79% of the EU’s coastal seabed is physically disturbed, primarily because of this trawling, with a quarter of the EU’s coastal area likely having lost its natural seabed habitats. I call on our leaders to stand up for wildlife, people and our ocean now.”
According to Nicolas Fournier, Campaign Director at Oceana in Europe, EU leaders can’t continue to ignore the public outcry about the destruction of protected areas by bottom trawling, as hundreds of thousands of EU citizens want meaningful marine protection.
“We urge the European Commission to particularly recognise in its future Ocean Pact how MPAs help protect fishers’ livelihoods and support coastal communities, including to counter the impacts of climate change on people.”
Seas At Risk Senior Marine Policy Office Tatiana Nuño commented: “At a time when the EU is laser focused on competitiveness, it’s vital that MPAs are recognised as key to building a sustainable blue economy that promotes both a healthy ocean and a healthy economy. Not only do MPAs help recover fish stocks and support sustainable fishing jobs – they also benefit the EU economy with projections showing that a ban on bottom trawling in them would create a cumulative profit of more than €8 billion over 20 years. If Commissioner Kadis is serious about creating an EU Ocean Pact that delivers for people and the planet alike then it’s high time the taboo around banning bottom trawling is cast aside.”
