UK Plans to Ban Destructive Activities Like Bottom Trawling in Marine Protected Areas

The United Kingdom has announced a plan to ban destructive activities like bottom trawling in 41 of the country’s offshore marine protected areas (MPAs), with a focus on vulnerable seabeds and ecologically sensitive habitats.

When added to existing bans on bottom trawling, the total area would equal more than 18,500 square miles, reported The Guardian.

The plan was announced by environment secretary Steve Reed at the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France.

“Bottom trawling is damaging our precious marine wildlife and habitats,” Reed said, as The Guardian reported. “Without such action, our oceans would be irreversibly destroyed.”

Campaigners hail plan to ban bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas

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— The Guardian (@theguardian.com) June 8, 2025 at 2:55 PM

In recent years, the UK government has established a total of 178 MPAs that cover almost 347,492 square miles of important marine habitats in English waters, a press release from UK Parliament said. But these are multi-use areas, which means the environmentally damaging activities are permitted if they do not have a direct impact on specified protected features.

There is a complete ban on damaging and extractive activities in the UK’s Highly Protected Marine Areas, of which there are only three.

The UK’s House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee recently issued a new report urging the government to ban the destructive activities. The committee recommended that the network of MPAs be expanded to 10 percent of waters to meet biodiversity targets by the end of the decade.

“UK waters are teeming with complex ecosystems that are not only precious in their own right but also critical to sustaining the delicate balance of marine life. Ministers must ensure that marine protected areas live up to their name,” said Toby Perkins, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, in the press release. “Activities with the potential to seriously damage marine environments, such as bottom trawling, risk slipping through the regulatory net.”

Joan Edwards, policy director at The Wildlife Trusts, expressed hope that, following government consultation on the proposals, the measures would be applied quickly in a “win-win” for climate and the environment, reported The Guardian.

“Removing this pressure is a great step forward towards protecting not only the wildlife and fish stocks within those sites but also the carbon stored in the seabed muds beneath,” Edwards said.

Executive Director of Oceana UK Hugo Tagholm said fully implementing the bans would provide “an invaluable and urgently needed lifeline for England’s seas.”

According to Oceana, bottom-trawling vessels were active in offshore MPAs for more than 30,000 hours — the equivalent of four years — in 2023.

“Conservation policy is awash with shiny new announcements and impressive sounding targets whereas what is needed is actual delivery. This, at first glance, seems to be about delivering conservation. We need to see the full details, but initial reading is positive,” said Jonny Hughes, senior policy manager at conservation nonprofit the Blue Marine Foundation.

The consultation was launched by the Marine Management Organisation, in partnership with the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on June 9 and will continue for 12 weeks.