A new European campaign supported by BLOOM, Blue Marine Foundation, Empesca’t, Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana, Only One, Seas At Risk and Tara Ocean Foundation, in collaboration with fishers, is calling on European leaders to ban destructive fishing such as bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs).

In letters sent to French president, Emmanuel Macron and EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis, the ‘Protect Our Catch’ campaign has said that without urgent action on destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling, Europe’s marine protected areas risk being stripped of marine life, with devastating consequences for small-scale fishers, biodiversity and the fight against climate change.

In June 2022, President Macron said that the world must “set ambitious goals for biodiversity and especially for ocean.” However, addressing the French president, the campaign argues the country has failed to make any “meaningful progress” on banning destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling in its protected areas, a stance activists say threatens France’s claim to be a steward of the ocean.

Simultaneously, the campaign 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.

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.”

Claire Nouvian, Founder & General Director, BLOOM, said: “Today, 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.”

Clare Brook, CEO of the Blue Marine Foundation, said: “Bottom trawling is a damaging and indiscriminate fishing method which ploughs up precious habitats, decimates biodiversity and depletes the ocean’s ability to sequester carbon. Yet this highly destructive type of fishing is still allowed in the majority of marine protected areas. We must ensure that bottom trawling is excluded from all marine protected areas without exception.”