As global concern over bottom trawling intensifies, last week the UK government proposed extending its ban on the controversial fishing method across an additional 30,000 square kilometres of offshore protected waters, bringing the total to 48,000 km². The decision was announced ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, where Sir David Attenborough condemned the practice as destructive and outdated.
Attenborough told Prince William in a televised discussion that he was “appalled” by bottom trawling and the damage it wreaks. “If you did anything remotely like it on land, everybody would be up in arms.”
Attenborough’s new documentary, “Ocean with David Attenborough,” features footage of trawl nets scraping across the seabed, destroying fragile ecosystems and indiscriminately scooping up fish and invertebrates.
UK Taking Action
Last week, Members of Parliament on the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee renewed calls to ban bottom trawling. The committee stated that it has conducted detailed assessments of the harm caused to habitats and species.
“Without urgent action, our oceans will be irreversibly destroyed,” said Environment Secretary Steve Reed.
“Our ocean is 99% of our living space on the globe, we have huge dependency on the ocean in every possible way, but bottom trawling does a lot of damage,” Dr Amanda Vincent, Professor in Marine Conservation at The University of British Columbia, told BBC’s Inside Science.
Bottom Trawling Still Permitted in Most BC Waters
In British Columbia, bottom trawling is still permitted in many parts of coastal waters, including areas recognized for their ecological sensitivity. Ancient glass sponge reefs, cold-water coral gardens, and soft-sediment seafloors serve as nurseries for halibut, sablefish, and rockfish, but much of this habitat lies outside fully protected areas.
A study by Living Oceans Society found that from 1996 to 2006, 97% of BC’s deep soft-sediment areas (150–1,200 metres deep) were trawled at least once, raising serious concerns about the long-term ecological impact.
During the 2022-2023 season, the groundfish trawl fleet caught and discarded an estimated 28,117 wild salmon as bycatch, including 20,000 Chinook salmon, with the majority of this bycatch coming from corporate-owned factory freezer trawlers. The numbers were deemed alarming due to the continued decline of wild Pacific salmon in BC.
Industry Pushback vs. Scientific Consensus
In the UK, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations called the proposal “disappointing,” arguing that trawling has minimal impact in most areas. Similar arguments are often made in BC, where some industry stakeholders say voluntary measures and selective gear already mitigate harm.
However, many marine scientists and conservation groups argue that voluntary measures are not enough.
An investigative report by The Narwhal uncovered widespread underreporting of bycatch in BC’s bottom trawl fishery. Observers described facing intimidation from captains and crew, including verbal threats. One observer estimated that during approximately 1,200 days at sea, the vessels he monitored collectively underreported around 3 million pounds of bycatch.
Industry observers have also noted that underreporting is widespread; they estimated that they consistently reported just 20–25% of the actual bycatch, particularly for non-target species like rockfish and halibut. These revelations imply that at least an additional 140 million pounds of bycatch may have gone unaccounted for over the last two decades.
Additionally, a 2021 Nature study concluded that bottom trawling globally emits as much carbon dioxide as the entire aviation industry does annually.
A 12-week consultation will be undertaken by the UK government with the marine and fishing industry before any action is taken on the proposed expansion of trawling bans. Scientists have pointed out that banning bottom trawling in some areas can benefit the industry as well, as restricting the practice in these areas allows fish stocks to recover and ultimately benefit the industry in the long term.
