Is Bottom Trawling Always Bad? It Depends Where

Off the south coast of England, about 100 kilometres out, sits Haig Fras, a granite reef covered in jewel anemones and cup corals. For years it was protected on paper, yet heavy fishing gear could still drag across it. In March 2024, that finally changed. In this episode, Andrew Lewin explains why where we fish matters as much as how much we fish, and what it takes to turn a line on a map into real protection.

Andrew breaks down the difference between midwater and bottom trawls and puts the damage shown in the recent Ocean documentary into context. Bottom trawling lands about a quarter of the world's wild-caught seafood, and the impact depends heavily on where it happens. He walks through the research on paper parks, where trawling was more intense inside European marine protected areas than outside them, and the five features that make an MPA deliver results. He also explains how England used public consultations to ban bottom-towed gear over sensitive reefs, and why the same place-based logic applies to fish farms.

The episode closes with a simple action anyone can take. The next time your government proposes or reviews a marine protected area, submit a public comment supporting rules that keep bottom trawling off sensitive habitats. Consultations count comments, and the rules written there decide whether a park is real.

Takeaways

• Bottom trawling supplies about a quarter of wild-caught seafood, and its impact depends on the habitat being trawled.
• Regions where less than 10% of the seafloor was trawled almost always had sustainably fished stocks.
• In a study of 727 EU MPAs, 59% were commercially trawled, and trawling was 38% more intense inside them than outside.
• MPAs that are no-take, enforced, older than 10 years, larger than 100 km², and isolated deliver far more fish and sharks.
• England's 2024 byelaw banned bottom-towed gear over reefs in 13 more offshore MPAs, including Haig Fras.
• Aquaculture now produces 51% of the world's aquatic animals. Look for ASC or BAP labels and seafood guide ratings.
• Submitting a public comment during MPA consultations directly shapes the rules.

Pre-Order Dr. David Shiffman's book: "Why Sustainable Seafood Matter"

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