Fishing has inflicted widespread and significant impacts on marine ecosystems around the world. The Baltic Sea is no exception. Bottom trawling is one of the most damaging fishing methods in practice. It directly impacts marine biodiversity by serially depleting the resource base; causing long-term physical damage to the seafloor; altering the characteristic ecosystem balance and food web; and potentially both enhancing the effects of eutrophication and compounding the impacts of climate change.
What is bottom trawling?
Bottom trawling is a fishing practice that uses mobile bottom contact fishing gear which is manually or mechanically dragged behind a boat. As the gear digs into or scrapes the seafloor, it stirs up sediment, destroys fragile creatures and catches almost everything in its path.
In the report, A sea under pressure: Bottom trawling impacts in the Baltic, WWF’s Baltic Ecoregion Programme investigates the likely impacts of bottom trawling in the southern areas of the Baltic Sea where trawl gear is deployed at the highest intensity. WWF is calling on the European Commission and Baltic governments to take action to apply ecosystem-based fisheries management in order to improve overall biodiversity and allow fish populations to recover.
Photo: © WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme
Among other things, the report reveals that bottom trawling is actively practised within the boundaries of marine protected areas (MPAs). Yet at a time when biodiversity is in rapid decline, ecologically important areas must instead be safeguarded and fully protected.
The report recommends nine actions that Baltic Sea governments must take to enable the recovery of marine ecosystems. Key among these is a ban on bottom trawling within the boundaries of all national MPAs and the dramatic reduction of overall fishing effort in key habitats – both of which would enable the management of fisheries as a renewable resource (as opposed to the current ‘ serial depletion’ approach). A regional bottom trawling ban is critical both to the recovery of the Baltic Sea and to the future health of the fishing industry.
Studies show that the environment of the Baltic Sea could be substantially restored if trawling were reduced overall and managed sustainably, through the adoption of a holistic ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management and spatial adaptation.
The report and storymap were launched at the European Commission ‘Our Baltic’ conference in September. The event was attended by Ministers for Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries from the region’s eight EU Member States – who convened to sign a Ministerial Declaration committing to greater engagement in protecting the Baltic Sea environment.
The storymap illustrates the before and after impacts of bottom trawling on the seafloor. Infographic: © WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme
This is an encouraging step forward but only time will tell if signing the Ministerial Declaration will guarantee the real changes needed to save the Baltic. “Despite a plethora of environmental legislation and policy, which is supposed to safeguard biodiversity in the sea, governments around the Baltic have done little to implement and enforce laws against unsustainable fishing practices like bottom trawling.” Ottilia Thoresen, Director of the WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme
For now, a new window of opportunity for dialogue has opened at the national level. A webinar convened by WWF on 27 November brought multiple stakeholders together with Dr. Clare Bradshaw (Stockholm University) and Prof. Jørgen Hansen (Aarhus University). The scientists presented new research on connections between fishing and bottom trawling impacts on the marine ecosystem and how they affect the biodiversity in Danish waters.
This article is part of the WWF Baltic Newsletter – December 2020
