Welcome to the TBT Coalition’s September / October newsletter.
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As the world’s attention shifts to the UN climate and biodiversity COPs, it’s clearer than ever that we need bold action to address the unprecedented crisis facing our lands and seas.
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In our oceans, industrial bottom trawlers and dredgers continue to have an outsized impact on the lives of coastal communities, carbon emissions, ecosystem decline, and fisheries conflict. The TBT Coalition’s members are committed to finding solutions to the impacts of trawling that support the livelihoods of coastal communities and safeguard marine life.
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In the EU, new reports and data tools provide robust evidence that bottom trawling must be banned in MPAs. Meanwhile, Scottish campaign groups have provided evidence to a Government Committee on the dire state of inshore seas and called for a reinstatement of an inshore limit on bottom trawling and dredging among other priorities.
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At the 12th WIOMSA Scientific Symposium, coalition members and community representatives talked about the impacts of bottom trawling in Somalia and Kenya. It laid the foundation for stronger collaboration and actions to address bottom trawling and amplify fishers’ voices.
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Together, these actions are part of a global movement to #TransformBottomTrawling.
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Unwanted bycatch, including a starfish in a net, far outweighs the target catch of orange roughy in a deep sea trawl from the Tasman Sea. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace
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COALITION UPDATES
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Shining a light on bottom trawling in Kenya and Somalia
Through testimonies and Q&A sessions, community members from Watamu, Kenya, and Bander Beyla, Somalia talked about the impacts of bottom trawling on their livelihoods.
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The event precedes the launch of a new online fisher testimonies map, which platforms the voices of small-scale fishers that have been affected by bottom trawling.
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CAMPAIGN UPDATES
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A new map highlights illegal trawling in Mediterranean MPAs
Members of the Med Sea Alliance, a diverse coalition of NGOs, launched a new data atlas on November 2nd which, for the first time, maps areas permanently closed to bottom trawling across the Mediterranean and investigates illegal trawling in these areas.
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Using data gathered by MedReAct and Global Fishing Watch, the ATLAS Tool shows over 350 areas of the Mediterranean permanently closed to trawling and possible infringements.
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“The analysis presented in the Atlas on presumed infringements is thought to represent the tip of the iceberg since it relies only on AIS data, which not all vessels use consistently,” said Tony Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch.
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Members of the Med Sea Alliance are calling on governments for effective protection of closed areas from bottom trawling through full enforcement and greater transparency.
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A new analysis reveals that bottom trawling is more intense inside ‘protected’ areas
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Oceana Europe analysed the bottom trawling activity in Spanish MPAs throughout 2021 and found that bottom trawling was nine times more intense inside MPAs than in surrounding areas.
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The map shows the intensity of bottom trawling within Spanish marine Natura 2000 sites in 2021.
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Lower-impact fishing methods could replace bottom trawling in Europe
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A new report published by Seas At Risk and Oceana Europe shows that bottom trawling could be largely replaced in the European Union by lower-impact fishing gears. Switching to readily available alternatives, such as traps, lines and nets, offers multiple benefits, including dramatically improving fisheries resources, protecting the seabed and marine habitats and increasing the resilience of the ocean to climate breakdown.
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Traditional handline fishing is one of the oldest and most sustainable ways of fishing for mackerel, pollock and sea bass in Cornwall, UK. © David Sandison / Greenpeace
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Underwater investigations reveal Scotland’s ‘paper parks’
While 37% of Scotland’s seas have been presented as protected, severe damage to seabed habitats is still occurring inside these protected areas.
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Open Seas has collected evidence from the Small Isles Marine Protected Area showing it is frequently exposed to bottom trawling and dredging.
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#BringBackTheFish gathers momentum
Our Seas is rallying its network to call on Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to protect the country’s seas from damaging discarding.
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Every year, thousands of tonnes of fish are estimated to be caught in trawl nets and then thrown back, dead, into the sea. Trawl nets and dredges also rake the seafloor, destroying underwater habitats. This practice was once banned within three miles of Scotland’s shores, but it is now legal across 95% of the country’s coastal seas.
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If you’re based in Scotland, you can use Our Seas online portal to email your MSP and call for discards to be addressed.
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On October 26th, Our Seas members presented strong testimonies of bottom trawling’s impacts on Scotland’s marine environments at a Scottish Parliament roundtable. Members shared Our Seas’ calls for:
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- Preferential access for low-impact fishing
- Reinstatement of an inshore limit to protect coastal nursery and spawning grounds for fish populations
- Vessel tracking on all fishing boats to improve enforcement and build an evidence base for management
- A just transition so that management measures are implemented fairly across the fleet
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A dredger drags heavy steel rakes and chain bags across the seabed within metres of shore to catch scallops on the West Coast of Scotland. Today bottom trawling and dredging is permitted 95% of Scotland’s coastal seas.
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BOTTOM TRAWLING NEWS
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Asia and Asia-Pacific
Bottom trawlers in India spark violent backlash from coastal communiites after fishing close to shore.
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A subsidiary of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest fishing companies has been fined
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for illegal trawling in a closed area in the Tasman Sea between Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. The judge fined the company NZ$59,000 and the skipper NZ$12,000 and seized the vessel.
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“We were shocked to learn of these proposals to continue mining and bottom trawling the Hauraki Gulf,” said Endangered Species Foundation General Manager, Natalie Jessup. “It’s like we’re stuck in the 1980’s”.
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An industrial bottom trawler drags its nets over an undersea bank off the south coast of Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island. © Film the Trawlers
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Africa
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A destructive fishing practice by foreign-owned industrial trawlers is threatening livelihoods in Ghana’s coastal communities.
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Small oily fish is critically important for coastal communities' livelihoods and food security in Ghana and across the West Africa region. Saiko fishing, overfishing and habitat destruction from bottom trawling is threatening this once-abundant resource. © Tom Collinson
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Europe
Goldman Environmental Prize winner Claire Nouvian joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the many impacts of bottom trawling and a historic policy shift by the European Commission to rein in the practice.
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Up to 80 trawlers from Ireland's 180-strong offshore fishing fleet could be destroyed if their owners are accepted into the Brexit voluntary decommissioning scheme
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Campaigners say marine protected area set up to save UK’s only fan mussels exists merely as a ‘paper park’
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Spain's Luis Planas announced the European Commission's decision to allow trawling up to 400 meters deep in 87 fishing grounds of the Atlantic Ocean, where it previously decided to ban fishing.
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The Scottish government dismissed commercial fisher groups and other stakeholders' concerns as being “anti-commercial fishing”.
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
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Send us your bottom trawling news or events that you’d like us to amplify via social media or this newsletter!
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