Bottom-trawl nets can be as large as a football field and weigh several tonnes, and the practice can decimate UK habitats vital for marine health, such as reefs, kelp forests and seagrass meadows. It also is known to have an extremely high rate of bycatch, indiscriminately scooping up untargeted wildlife. Despite this, it is permitted in almost all of the UK’s MPAs, even many of those designated specifically to protect rare and important seabed species.

The overwhelming majority in favour of banning bottom trawling in MPAs was shown in a sample of 2,111 UK adults, for polling commissioned by the charity Oceana UK, 566 of whom lived in coastal constituencies.

Although the strength of feeling about the issue was high, awareness was initially low. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of those asked thought that bottom trawling was already banned in MPAs, a figure that was very similar in the subset of coastal constituencies (66%).

Coastal people reported feeling ‘Angry’ (23%) and ‘Disappointed’ (42%) about the fact that this harmful practice is still permitted in most marine havens, closely reflecting the result across the whole sample (23% and 41%, respectively).

Hugo Tagholm, Executive Director of Oceana UK, said: “The strength of feeling across the UK public is clear: Destructive bottom trawling has no place in our marine ‘protected’ areas. Whether we live by the coast or in a city, we are united against the bulldozing of our marine havens. The UK is an ocean nation and our waters have provided prosperity, food, a stable climate and a deep connection to nature for millennia. As a nation, we must honour our commitment to protect and restore 30% of our seas by 2030. The absolute minimum we can do is give real protection to our so-called protected areas.”

Last year, UK offshore MPAs were subjected to over 33,000 hours of suspected bottom trawling, according to analysis of satellite tracks by Oceana published earlier this year. This adds up to nearly four years of continuous trawling.