Over half of the UK’s wildlife call the sea home – from tiny sand eels (the favourite food of puffins) to ocean giants like minke whales and orcas. Our marine environments also offer a treasure trove of opportunities for tourism, trade and ocean energy, and have the potential to protect against climate breakdown due to the large stores of carbon they hold. 

However, in the UK, over half of marine habitats are deteriorating and only 29% of estuaries and coastal bodies are in good ecological condition. Bottom trawling – a fishing technique where nets are raked along the seabed – destroying habitats and capturing all marine life in its path, as well as potentially releasing carbon stored in the seabed. Along with Wildlife Trusts across the country, we have been campaigning for this damaging practice to be banned within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) which are supposed to protect the seabed.

In a welcome step forward, on Monday (9 June), the UK Government announced proposals to ban bottom trawling in 41 offshore Marine Protected Areas, pending a consultation. 

Carli Cocciardi, Marine Nature Recovery Officer at Devon Wildlife Trust, says: 

“For too long damaging activities have been allowed to continue within many of our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) which are supposed to protect the seabed. We have been campaigning for a long time for better management of our MPAs and therefore welcome the news of a consultation to ban bottom-towed trawling in 41 offshore sites – including 5 within Devon.

“Removing this pressure is a great step forward towards protecting not only the wildlife and fish populations within those sites, but also the carbon stored in the seabed beneath. Now, we must make sure the measures are implemented as soon as possible and across the whole site, in order to protect vulnerable marine habitats and underwater life.  Following this consultation, we hope that these measures will be put in place rapidly to enable recovery of these sites and ensure wins for both nature and the climate.”

“We published a Blue Carbon report last year which revealed that the UK’s marine habitats have a crucial role to play in tackling climate change. The report found that 244 million tonnes of organic carbon are stored in just the top 10cm of seabed sediments and coastal vegetated habitats, with over 98% of it stored in seabed sediments such as mud. It’s time we took protecting it much more seriously.”  

The long overdue consultation on Stage 3 fisheries management measures, to ban bottom-towed gears and other damaging fishing activity from 41 offshore MPAs in English waters, will now be undertaken – but it is only a first step towards full protection. 

The proposals will only protect specific seabed features, and The Wildlife Trusts movement will continue to urge the government to implement these measures over the whole protected site to ensure full ecosystem protection and recovery, with all the associated benefits.

The recovery and restoration of our beautiful marine habitats and the fantastic wildlife that lives beneath the waves around our coastline is within our grasp. 

Email Minister Hardy to show you support this consultation and urge her to put a ban in place as soon as possible.