Sanctuaries that are fishing grounds: so-called “protected” marine areas still intensively trawled

10 May 2025

In March 2024, BLOOM published a significant scientific report analyzing the fishing activities of all trawlers over 15 meters in length that operated within the European Union’s so-called ‘protected’ marine areas in 2023. The report revealed that the most destructive fishing methods, such as bottom trawling, were being carried out daily in these supposedly ‘protected’ zones. One year later, just weeks before the official publication of the European Pact for the Oceans and approximately one month before the United Nations Conference on the Ocean (UNOC), hosted by France, the outlook remains bleak, with trawling intensity remaining dramatically higher inside these areas than outside. In 2023, it was 1.4 times higher, and this ratio has remained unchanged in 2024.

This finding emerges against an even more serious backdrop. Firstly, the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Kostas Kadis; the Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher; and the President of the Republic have recently reaffirmed their refusal to implement a genuine marine protection policy. Instead, they advocate a  to protection that contradicts all scientific recommendations. Secondly, the publication of the European Pact for the Ocean has failed to provide concrete answers to the terrible crises we are experiencing. Instead, it ignores the environmental emergency and betrays the EU’s protection commitments by failing to include any measures regarding marine protected areas. Contrary to scientific recommendations and international and European objectives, which aim to establish 30% of marine protected areas by 2030 and prohibit all industrial activities and infrastructure, with one-third under strict protection, European and French executives are defending a ‘case-by-case’ approach and proposing that the destructive status quo of industrial fishing be maintained.

However, a survey conducted by Ipsos for Bloom in December 2024 reveals that 74% of French people believe that trawling and industrial fishing should be banned in marine protected areas, while only 19% favor a case-by-case approach.

So-called ‘protected’ marine areas still endure destruction from trawling

While 11.4% of the European Union’s national waters are covered by marine protected areas, 86% of these are ineffective or even incompatible with conservation objectives as they allow industrial activities. The implementation of these “protected” marine areas is therefore a sham, since trawling — considered one of the most destructive fishing techniques — is authorized there.

BLOOM has updated the key findings of its ‘Bulldozed’ study, published in March 2024. The results are alarming: trawlers continue to operate in most so-called ‘protected’ marine areas in Europe. Therefore, approximately a quarter (27.1% in 2024 compared to 26.7% in 2023) of the total trawling effort in Europe still occurs within these areas. Trawling activity (both bottom and pelagic) remains more intense in zones meant to be ‘protected’ than outside them. This intensity, measured in trawling hours per square kilometer, reaches particularly concerning levels: in 2023, it was 1.4 times higher inside “protected” marine areas than in unprotected zones. This imbalance persisted in 2024, yielding an identical result to a previous study on European MPAs published in the prestigious journal Science in 2017. In other words, despite the urgent need to address biodiversity and climate issues, and despite warnings from civil society and scientists about the destruction of ecosystems, the pressure on marine ecosystems remains unchanged.

Trawling effort in European Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in 2024

In 2024, the total area scraped by bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs) in the European Union was 288,136 km², almost the size of Italy. However, this fishing effort is not distributed evenly. In 2024, four countries — Spain, France (which retains its ‘sad silver medal’), the Netherlands and Italy — accounted for the highest number of trawling hours in their ‘protected’ marine areas.

In France, for example, more than 300,000 hours of trawling took place in supposedly ‘protected’ marine areas in 2024, accounting for 40% of the country’s bottom and pelagic trawling. These areas should serve as sanctuaries for biodiversity and small-scale fishing. The Bay of Biscay Slope MPA alone accounted for almost 120,763 hours of trawling in 2024.

In France, more than 300,000 hours of trawling took place in supposedly ‘protected’ marine areas in 2024: 40% of bottom trawling and pelagic fishing in France takes place in these areas, which should be sanctuaries for biodiversity and small-scale fishing. The so-called Talus du Golfe de Gascogne MPA alone accounts for nearly 120,763 hours of trawling in 2024.

Ranking of the 40 countries with the highest number of fishing hours in MPAs in 2024

This pressure is also exerted by pelagic mega-trawlers: factory ships measuring up to 145 meters in length that can catch 400 tons of fish in a single day — equivalent to the catch of 1,000 small-scale fishing vessels. Of the vessels over 80 meters long listed in the update to our analysis, 71% fished for at least 10 hours in a European ‘protected’ marine area in 2024[1]. For example, the Frank Bonefaas, a 119-metre-long sea bulldozer, spent around 123 hours fishing in MPAs (19% of its fishing effort). The Prins Bernhard, an 88-metre-long mega-trawler, spent nearly 113 hours fishing in marine areas that are supposed to be “protected”.

The fishing time of mega-trawlers (over 80 m long) in the EU and the percentage of time spent in European Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in 2024.

Therefore, areas designated for biodiversity protection do not protect marine ecosystems or artisanal fishing from the largest industrial fishing vessels, the impact of which on the ocean, climate, and artisanal fishermen is catastrophic.

A reality at odds with scientific recommendations and political announcements

Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) emphasize the importance of developing a coherent network of marine protected areas to combat climate change and biodiversity collapse, the main cause of which is industrial fishing. In 2020, the European Union adopted its Biodiversity Strategy, setting the goal of achieving 30% marine protection by 2030, with one-third under strict protection. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recommends prohibiting all industrial activities and infrastructure, including industrial fishing, in these areas.

The urgent need for immediate protection

These new figures once again highlight the vast discrepancy between the protection measures declared by European governments and the reality on the ground. Under these conditions, MPAs cannot fulfill their primary roles of protecting and restoring marine ecosystems, or conserving the ocean carbon sink. Furthermore, artisanal fishermen cannot currently benefit from the socio-economic and ecological advantages of genuine MPAs because they face unfair competition from bottom and pelagic trawlers. In France, these trawlers are responsible for fishing 88% of overexploited resources.

With the expected announcements within the framework of the European Pact for the Oceans and the United Nations Conference on the Ocean just a few weeks away, we are calling on political decision-makers to take responsibility and address the urgent need for real marine protected areas without trawling, and to implement them right now.

 

—

Methodological modification

This update to the figures from the 2024 Bulldozed study has revealed that vessels identified by Global Fishing Watch as fishing were actually engaged in passage activities to exit the port. Consequently, the marine protected area of Tatihou in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Normandy, emerged in 2023 as the French MPA with the highest intensity of trawling, i.e. the number of trawling hours per square kilometer. However, this data has now been corrected.

[1] Of the 17 vessels recorded, 12 fished for at least 10 hours in a marine area that was supposed to be ‘protected.’