18 Jun 2024
Sweden is set to become the second EU country, following Greece, to ban bottom fishing in marine protected areas (MPAs). Sweden has committed to go one step further by banning bottom trawling in all its territorial waters. At a press conference, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his ministers announced the government’s intention to implement this […]
04 Jun 2024
A new study by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon models the influence of bottom trawls on sedimentary carbon in the North Sea. The researchers state that fishing trawls cause significant CO2 emissions as they stir up the carbon bound in the seabed and release it again. They also believe it is clear that they drastically affect ecosystems […]
30 Apr 2024
Mairi Gougeon MSP, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform, and Islands, has written to Finlay Carson, the Chair of the Rural Affairs and Island Committee, to address the concerns regarding the sand eel fishing ban in Scotland and the challenge raised by the EU. The European Commission said that the ban […]
28 Apr 2024
The decision by the Isle of Man government to close three fishing sites in its waters by banning bottom trawling has raised concerns across the Irish Sea. The closed areas are located within the Western Irish Sea Mud-belt, a vital habitat for various marine species, notably langoustines. Despite decades of extensive trawling, the area is […]
26 Mar 2024
A new byelaw protecting an area of almost 4000 square km of seas from damaging fishing activity is now in force in English waters. The byelaw prohibits the use of bottom towed gear in specific areas within 13 English offshore MPAs that contain valuable reef and rocky habitats. The implementation of the byelaw comes days […]
20 Mar 2024
The UK’s marine protected areas (MPAs) were exposed to over 33,000 hours of suspected bottom trawling in 2023, according to new analysis from Oceana UK. The environment group used analysis of satellite data from Global Fishing Watch to show that over 100,000 hours of apparent industrial fishing took place within the UK’s offshore MPAs in 2023 […]
19 Feb 2024
Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D, has launched a public consultation on fishing with trawls inside the six nautical mile zone and the baselines and is seeking the public’s opinion on the matter. Minister McConalogue said: “Five years ago, in December 2018, a transition to a ban on vessels over […]
21 Jan 2024
A new study has revealed how much carbon bottom trawling releases into the atmosphere. Much of the damage done by dragging across the bottom of the sea to catch fish has been known for many years. However, new research shows that it is also an unaccounted source of carbon emissions that is “too big to […]
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