Spain and EU Commission threatening to sink bottom trawling moratorium

As the rest of the world moves ahead towards a moratorium on the incredibly destructive practice of high seas bottom trawling, Spain (and it’s sidekick “Canada”) is plotting to foil the deal. Spain is one of the 11 countries in the world that operates a fleet of bottom trawlers that are engaged in largely unregulated high seas fishing.

Bottom trawling involves dragging huge, heavy nets along the sea floor. Globally, an area more than 30 times the size of Spain is torn up by bottom trawling each year. It’s like clear cutting undersea forests before we ever even explore them.

Send this email asking the EU Fisheries Commissioner Borg to stand up to the bottom trawling industry, and the Spanish ministers, by helping secure a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling by the end of the year.

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I am writing to express my deep disappointment and embarrassment with the fact that the European Union is opposing effective and immediate measures to protect deep-sea life in the high seas from destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling.

It is shameful to see that the EU is dragging its feet on a decision that could make or break the very survival  of some of the most ancient, diverse and intricate ecosystems on this planet. At a minimum, the EU should agree to a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling in all areas where there are no applicable conservation and management measures in place or where no fisheries management organisations exist.

As you know, a growing number of countries, including the Pacific Island States, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, the US, India, Brazil and South Africa, as well as individual EU states such as France, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Hungary amongst others, agree with scientists and international conservation organisations on the need for a UN moratorium on unregulated high seas bottom trawling. With countries like these now supportive of concrete UN action, the EU is looking increasingly isolated in disagreeing with the urgent need for the UN to play a key role in protecting deep-sea life in the international waters of the high seas. I share their concern, and frankly am in disbelief that the EU’s common position should be held hostage by the economic interests of a small fleet of Spanish bottom trawlers engaged largely in unregulated high seas fishing.

The EU still has a few weeks left in which to work towards an agreement to protect deep-sea ecosystems.  Please join the countries allied in their quest to take action supporting the establishment of a UN moratorium on unregulated high seas bottom trawling at the UN this month -- help make a decision that could be the single most sweeping act of international marine protection in human history.