The European Commission closed 87 protected areas in November 2022.
The European Commission has confirmed that countries can ban destructive practices such as bottom trawling in vulnerable marine areas under European Union law.
According to the UK-based charity Blue Marine Foundation, bottom trawling destroys fragile habitats and eliminates biodiversity because it uses heavy nets along the seafloor.
"This ruling sends a clear signal that we have strong conservation laws for protecting MPAs from destructive activities such as bottom trawling. Now it's a matter of ensuring that they are urgently enforced. The upcoming European Oceans Pact is a key opportunity for the European Commission to set out a clear vision and strategy to enforce ocean conservation laws and tackle the root cause of so much marine biodiversity loss in Europe," explained ClientEarth senior lawyer John Condon.
Additionally, Blue Marine's senior project manager, Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, assured: "This is good news for our seas because destructive forms of fishing are currently prevalent inside most EU Marine Protected Areas, which is the opposite of what the public expects. We call on the Commission and member states to ban trawling in all MPAs and bring our seas back to health, as the court has clearly said they can."
This conclusion follows after VDK, a German fishing group, attempted to overturn the new rules that restricted harmful fishing practices in parts of the North Sea.
The new rules were adopted by the Commission on December 8, 2022, after consulting with several countries and organizations, prompted by a request for an amendment to a 2017 regulation submitted by Germany and the Netherlands.
However, a new open-access study published in Science Advances revealed that bottom fishing persists in European waters despite the closure of 87 protected areas ordered by the European Commission in November 2022.
Furthermore, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition said that while the reduction in fishing activity is promising, the study revealed continuing threats to these vital and vulnerable ecosystems.
