Ban Bottom Trawling- Consultation

Photo Credit- Painted Goby, Paul Naylor

Ban Bottom Trawling in seabed Marine Protected Areas
Email your thoughts now.

We’ve set out some key points for you.

This is your opportunity to check you are happy with what you have written and make any edits. Using your own words will make a much bigger impact.

The ocean is our planet's life support system, providing every second breath we breathe - and the seabed is the foundation of marine life. Bottom trawling is tearing up the ocean floor, destroying and killing wildlife, releasing carbon back into the atmosphere and threatening the future of communities which depend on our seas.

Send your response

Details
Email
Share

Minister

Emma

Hardy

DEFRA

Dear consultation team,

(cc to Minister Emma Hardy)

I am pleased to see the consultation on proposals to better protect Marine Protected Areas. I am responding as an individual and writing to show my support for plans to implement bottom-towed gear bans for 41 seabed Marine Protected Areas designated offshore in England.

I believe bottom trawling should be banned in seabed MPAs, across the whole area of these sites.

A ban on bottom trawling in offshore seabed MPAs benefits me.

I am devastated to learn about the destruction being allowed in protected areas. Banning destructive bottom trawling would be an important, positive step forward for our seas - I strongly support this. Sir David Attenborough’s latest film, Ocean, is a stark reminder that the ocean, our planet’s lifeblood, is in crisis. He has also highlighted the devastating impact industrial fishing is having on our seas, the climate, and the livelihoods of low-impact fishers.

Protecting MPAs from damaging activities would allow marine life to thrive and carbon will be locked away. I urge you to implement a ban as rapidly as possible across the whole site of each protected area. Our seas have an incredible ability to recover... if we let them.

This would not only safeguard the seas, but also cement the UK’s role as champion for marine conservation on the world stage. The science is clear, public support is strong; let’s make change. Decisive action from you is needed urgently - now more than ever.

I am copying in the Minister for Water and Flooding, Emma Hardy, who is responsible for domestic and marine to this response to the formal consultation.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

{user_data~Email address}

{user_data~Postcode}

Please consider the above as my response to Section 1 (General Comments) and Sections 2 to 5 for each Marine Protected Area covered by the formal consultation on proposed measures to manage fishing activity in 42 offshore Marine Protected Areas (Stage 3).

I am responding to the consultation as an individual

Would you like your response to the MMO to be confidential?

Conservation Team

MMO