All but two of Scotland’s 24 offshore marine protected areas were damaged by bottom-towed fishing gear last year, prompting calls for a ban.
Oceana, a conservation group, says its analysis suggested that about 300 large bottom trawlers and dredgers “plough Scotland’s protected seabed on a near daily basis”. Only the deep-sea Hatton-Rockall basin and Hatton Bank marine protected areas (MPAs), far off the west coast, were spared.
The data indicated that Scotland’s 69 inshore MPAs were intensely disturbed, including at south Arran, which is designated to protect ocean quahog, kelp and seagrass beds, maerl beds and burrowing bivalves. Oceana recorded 2,295 fishing hours at south Arran compared with 880 at the Moray Firth, with its important sandbanks and bottlenose dolphins.
Melissa Moore, head of UK policy at Oceana, said: “We are calling on Scottish ministers to take urgent action to ban bottom-towed fishing gear in all of Scotland’s MPAs and reinstate the three nautical mile inshore trawl and dredge ban. As well as being destructive, continued licensing of this activity is illegal under marine wildlife laws.
“Scotland needs to step up and protect its rich and diverse marine life. These damaging fishing methods also have a devastating impact on blue carbon habitats and ruin the fishing grounds of low-impact fishermen such as creelers.”
Advertisement
Willie Mackenzie, an oceans consultant for Greenpeace UK, said: “Bottom trawlers, which rip up the seabed, have no place in any protected areas at sea, especially those which were set up specifically to protect the seabed.
“It’s ridiculous that the UK’s governments say they have protected vast swathes of seabed, when they still allow bottom trawlers to plough them with alarming regularity.
“We hope Scotland’s government recognises the severity of the climate and nature emergency we’re facing, shows leadership, and bans bottom trawlers from all of Scotland’s protected areas. This will safeguard biodiversity, and ensure vast stores of blue carbon remain safely in the deep oceans.”
This week, an alliance of more than 100 organisations demanded that trawlers be banned from fishing within three miles of Scotland’s coasts. Members of the Our Seas coalition said a “modernised” three-mile limit was “not a radical measure” and would benefit the environment and communities.
A previous ban on trawling the seabed within three miles of the coast was repealed by the UK government in 1984 and Ailsa McLellan, the coalition co-ordinator, claimed this “led to what academics called ‘ecological meltdown’ ”.
Advertisement
Talks are continuing between the SNP and the Scottish Greens over a formal co-operation agreement.
