The UK government has proposed “feeble” new restrictions on harmful bottom trawling within 13 marine parks in England that would only actually ban it in three, campaigners say.
Under the proposals put forward by Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, three out of the 13 marine protected areas (MPAs) would introduce whole-site bans on the environmentally destructive practice of bottom trawling. The other 10 would introduce partial bans in certain areas, mostly reefs and rocks where trawling is unlikely to occur anyway. England has 40 offshore marine protected areas in total.
The measures follow a ban last June on bottom trawling at Dogger Bank, the UK’s largest sandbank and an important site for many marine species, as well as three other marine parks. The latest proposals – to introduce bylaws to restrict or ban bottom-towed gear in a further third of England’s marine parks – are part of the government’s wider consultation on the impact of fishing in MPAs.
“Today’s plans will deliver more crucial safeguards for vital biodiversity and help restore England’s marine ecosystems,” Coffey said. “We will listen carefully to the responses so that we can help habitats and species recover while ensuring we have a sustainable and successful fishing industry for years to come.”
Ocean campaigners, who want bottom trawling and other destructive fishing banned in all the UK’s MPAs, described the proposals as “too slow and piecemeal” to match the urgency of the ocean crisis. Trawling and dredging is currently permitted in the majority of these protected area, leading them to be dubbed “paper parks”.