Because the BBC’s most recognisable voice, David Attenborough has walked a high quality line between informing viewers and advocating for the atmosphere. But aged 99, the naturalist has managed the extraordinary campaigning feat of taking an usually neglected environmental subject and, barely a month later, forcing world leaders to behave.
On Monday, Steve Reed, the atmosphere secretary, will announce plans to ban backside trawling in additional than half of England’s protected seas, after widespread condemnation of the harmful fishing methodology highlighted in Attenborough’s new movie, Ocean.
The documentary maker additionally has the Prince of Wales in his camp. Prince William interviewed Attenborough on the London premiere and is anticipated to subject an pressing name for motion on Sunday at an occasion earlier than the third UN ocean convention (UNOC3) in Good.
Even the convention itself, which Greenpeace had described three weeks in the past as “missing ambition”, has been invigorated by Attenborough’s movie. UNOC3’s host Emmanuel Macron, is now beneath stress to tackle the highly effective French fishing foyer and comply with Reed’s instance.
Ocean featured uncommon footage of backside trawling, with underwater cameras revealing the harmful energy of a heavy chain scraping alongside the seabed, forcing fish into an enormous trawler web.
In his interview with Prince William, Attenborough stated he was “appalled” by the footage, including: “In case you did something remotely prefer it on land, all people can be up in arms.”
This indiscriminate methodology means as much as 55% of bottom-trawled fish are undesirable bycatch. New analysis shared with The Observer reveals that no less than one in 10 species caught by backside trawlers is threatened. Researchers from the College of British Columbia in Vancouver analysed 4,000 reviews and papers by companies such because the UN’s Meals and Agriculture Group and located that backside trawlers had been documented as catching no less than 3,053 fish species – 4 instances earlier estimates.
Backside trawling destroys any coral, kelp, seagrass or different marine habitats on the seabed and is devastating for fish spawning grounds. But the approach shouldn’t be banned in most UK marine protected areas (MPAs). Rishi Sunak’s authorities had pledged to “take away pressures” on all 181 MPAs in England by the tip of 2024.
Reed will inform delegates at UNOC3 that the UK authorities now plans to ban vessels from utilizing bottom-towed fishing gear in 41 of England’s MPAs, which cowl about 36,000 sq miles (roughly 93,000 sq km) of English seas. Banning trawling in 41 zones would imply a complete of about 19,000 of these sq miles are protected (7,000 sq miles are already protected). Fishing organisations say that backside trawling is now solely a small a part of the UK fleet’s actions, however environmental teams imagine trawlers nonetheless function in areas the place bans are energetic. Some estimate that 95% of MPAs are trawled
The marketing campaign group Oceana UK discovered fishing vessels geared up with bottom-towed gear had been energetic within the UK’s offshore MPAs for greater than 33,000 hours – including as much as practically 4 years – in 2023 alone. Simply 10 vessels had been accountable for greater than 1 / 4 of this exercise and The Observer understands that eight had been from France, one from the Netherlands and one from Germany. Simply 6% of the full suspected backside trawling in these MPAs was carried out by UK vessels.
Amanda Vincent, professor of ocean conservation on the College of British Columbia, stated overfishing was resulting in the indiscriminate focusing on of species. She stated her discovering that one in 10 bottom-trawled species was on the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature purple checklist of endangered species could also be an underestimate, as a result of for 38% of species there’s not sufficient knowledge to determine whether or not they’re threatened. Vincent stated: “We now have now reached a stage of annihilation fishing the place lots of the backside trawlers are going out to catch life itself.
There’s no goal species. They exit to catch what they will. “They attempt to discover the fish of excessive worth, however an enormous portion of the catch will get lowered to fish meal, fish oil and animal feed. The habitats are so degraded that focusing on particular species is usually now not justified.”
The extent of the harm brought on by backside trawling to UK species has change into extra obvious with analysis by Dr Ruth Thurstan and Prof Callum Roberts of Exeter College that has examined the historical past of fishing. In 1376, fishermen on the south coast petitioned Edward III concerning the issues brought on by the “nice and lengthy iron of the wondyrechaun” being dragged “closely and hardily” over the seabed, destroying “flowers of the land” – in all probability coral or kelp – and mussels and oysters. That harm escalated with steam-powered fishing within the late nineteenth century. Oyster reefs used to stretch from Norway right down to the Bay of Biscay, filtering the water and creating habitats for different species, in line with analysis by Edinburgh College final yr. Now there are only some clumps of oyster formations left. The Mediterranean has probably the most closely trawled sea flooring on this planet – about 80% of the Adriatic’s seabed has been trawled.
Analysis by Roberts discovered that UK fishing vessels land catches 6% of the dimensions of 120 years in the past. Halibut have been significantly badly affected. There are not any quotas for these bottom-dwelling flatfish that develop within the Dogger Financial institution to the dimensions of a kitchen desk, however it’s thought that fishers would now have to make about 500 expeditions to land the quantity of fish caught in 1889. “The massive wildlife has been fished just about to the purpose of elimination,” Roberts stated. “You’re left with the rats and the cockroaches of the ocean.”
Industrial fishing now concentrates on small flatfish and prawns and scallops. “They stay quick, reproduce early and prolifically, and die comparatively younger, whereas the larger, older animals – the turbots, the brill, the halibut and the skates – they’re progressively eradicated by excessive ranges of removals with backside trawling.”In locations the place backside trawling has been stopped, such because the Isle of Arran, the seabed has recovered. “It’s gone from denuded sand and gravel to being lined in seamoss and sea nettles and sponges,” Roberts stated.
Oceana UK needs an entire ban on backside trawling throughout all MPAs in UK waters. Hugo Tagholm, govt director of Oceana UK, stated: “Backside trawling is an intensely harmful type of fishing, second solely to practices like blowing fish out of the water with dynamite.“Any marine ‘protected’ space being bulldozed by this observe is protected in title alone. The federal government should act quick to ban backside trawling throughout all UK marine protected areas in order that they will change into the havens for nature and powerhouses of ocean resilience that we urgently want.”
Further reporting: Richard Palmer
{Photograph} by Silverback Movies
