The largest strip of sand in the United Kingdom is protected from bottom trawling, environmentally destructive fishing gear.
Activists have been calling on the government for years to stop bottom trawling at Dogger Bank, an important site off the east coast of England for species including sand eels, hermit crabs, flatfish and starfish.
Recent data show that the fishing method, which involves hauling weighted nets on the seabed, has tripled in the Marine Protected Area (MPA) since Brexit.
This is despite the fact that the area is designated as MPA. Bottom trawling takes place in many of these environmentally important areas, leading activists and experts to call them nothing but “paper parks”. Not only does it disturb species living on the seabed, but it is also a significant source of carbon sequestration, as the seabed usually acts as a valuable sink for absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, but becomes a source of carbon when violated.
The method will now be banned, with government sources citing new legislation as a result of Brexit freedoms. The four by-laws, introduced through new powers under the Fisheries Act 2020, will enter into force in June.
Environment Secretary George Justis said: “Outside the EU, we are using our new freedoms to protect our marine environment. We will stop trawling and dredging in these marine protected areas to protect wildlife and habitats, through the powers we have in our Fisheries Act 2020.
In addition to Dogger Bank, there are three other MPAs that are saving from bottom trawling. These include Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge, a special protection area off the south coast of Lincolnshire, the South Dorset Conservation Area and the Canyons Marine Conservation Area, which is in the far south-west corner of the mainland of the United Kingdom. . shelf area.
However, experts said there are 64 MPAs, most of which have little protection against destructive fishing.
Melissa Moore, UK policy chief at the NGO Oceana, said: “The good news is that the government has finally taken the first step in managing four of its 64 offshore benthic MPAs, given that harmful activities such as bottomless trawling is prohibited in the ILO. under conservation law.
“We fully support the statutes of Dogger Bank, which will protect the entire site and benefit the North Sea ecosystem beyond. However, the proposed Inner Dowsing MPA policy is small and will only protect parts of the site. We call on the United Kingdom to rectify this and work swiftly with decentralized governments to ban bottom towed equipment in the remaining 60 offshore MPAs that have promised to operate following the Oceana legal challenge of 2021. This is now increasingly urgent due to climate and environmental concerns. crises ”
Greenpeace is campaigning for the government to stop trawling at Dogger Bank, most notably throwing stones at the MPA to thwart trawlers. Campaigners have called on the government to use its post-Brexit powers to go further and ban destructive fishing practices in all MPAs.
Fiona Nichols, an ocean fighter at Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s been 18 months since Greenpeace built a protective rock barrier at Dogger Bank and the government has committed to stopping bottom trawling in this iconic and environmentally important area. Although this is a major step towards preserving some of Dogger Bank’s most environmentally important features, destructive industrial fishing vessels such as factory trawlers will still have the right to plunder this now partially protected area.
“We need the government to make us fully or strongly protect all our marine protected areas this year. This means, as a starting point, a ban on all destructive industrial fishing vessels. This could be done with the help of post-Brexit powers to limit fishing licenses, instead of simply relying on the cumbersome process of introducing partial by-laws on the site. Only then will the United Kingdom be a true world leader in maritime protection and nature and coastal communities will have a chance to recover.
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