Europe’s coastal communities are losing faith in their governments’ willingness to halt and reverse the decline of their coastal waters, with many now of the belief that their local marine environment is in worse shape today than it was a decade ago.

It’s according to new research from the environmental law organisation, ClientEarth – conducted across nine coastal European countries – that nearly half of coastal residents have witnessed a noticeable decline, while just one in three trust their government to protect it.

The research – published last week – landed not just to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya but to mark the first anniversary of the European Ocean Pact and the announcement of the EU Ocean Act. One year on, and the picture painted by those living on Europe’s coastlines is one of ‘commitments made and commitments broken.’

Some 46% of those surveyed said their local marine environment is in decline while only 36% trust their government is doing enough to address it. In the UK, that figure falls to 29%. In Denmark, 27%, in Greece, just 21%. The three factors most commonly cited as barriers to effective action were de-prioritisation of marine protection, lack of enforcement budget and lack of enforcement resources.

The consequences of that enforcement gap are being felt directly. Almost half of those surveyed said fish and marine animal numbers are declining in their local waters. A staggering 40% reported a decline in marine plants while 35% percent said the same of marine mammals. A quarter said they had personally witnessed harmful activity in their local marine environment. 

Meanwhile, in a separate survey of the fishing industry, seven in ten respondents said they believe illegal practices occur in the sector, while 85% said a decline in the marine environment would damage their industry.

The human dimension of that failure was captured plainly by Luis Rodríguez, a small-scale Spanish fisherman operating inside a Spanish Marine Protected Area. “If you protect an area and don’t monitor it,” he said, “what you’re really protecting are the rule-breakers.”

Nowhere is that tension more visible than in the United Kingdom, where a promise made with considerable fanfare one year ago has yet to produce a single concrete result. On 8 June 2025, then Secretary of State Steve Reed announced the government’s intention to ban bottom trawling in 41 offshore marine protected areas – totalling 30,000 square kilometres of seabed. Reed himself described the ban as “overdue”, writing in the Observer that bottom trawling was “destroying the most vulnerable areas of our oceans.” Conservation organisations welcomed the announcement as a significant step forward.

A year later, nothing has changed. Approximately 30,000 hours of bottom trawling have taken place inside UK marine protected areas since the announcement was made. The consultation that followed closed in September 2025, but no response has been published and no decision delivered. The current Secretary of State, Emma Reynolds, has cited the volume of consultation responses as the reason for the delay.

That explanation has not satisfied those who have spent years pushing for action. “We were so encouraged a year ago by the government’s announcement to – at last – ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas,” said Clare Brook, CEO of Blue Marine Foundation. 

“85% of people in the UK are in favour of banning bottom trawling in our marine protected areas, yet they are being fobbed off with feeble excuses. The government needs to keep its promise and implement this ban.”

Will McCallum, Co-Director of Greenpeace UK, was unsparing. “If this government was a guard dog, it would have been retired long ago. Ministers bark about new ‘protected areas’ of the ocean while hiding behind empty promises and endless consultations. Meanwhile bottom trawlers are bulldozing our seabeds and industrial supertrawlers are indiscriminately sucking up thousands of tonnes of sea life inside these protected areas – including dolphins and seabirds. 

“No-one else will guard the magnificent blue waters surrounding our islands – this government needs to stop snoozing on the job.”

The statistics that frame that inaction are stark. While 38% of UK seas carry some form of conservation designation, just 12% are protected from bottom trawling. Less than one percent is fully protected from all forms of industrial fishing. Bottom trawling – which drags heavy nets across the seafloor, obliterating seabed habitats including seagrass meadows, oyster reefs and sponge beds, and generating bycatch that can account for up to 80% of a trawler’s catch – remains legal in two thirds of UK marine protected areas.

ClientEarth’s Laura Clarke framed the broader European picture in terms that apply with equal force to the UK. “Our ocean is in a terrifying decline. Across Europe, millions of people rely on healthy marine environments. One year ago, at the UN Ocean Conference, heads of state and government from across Europe made new pledges to protect marine areas, safeguard the High Seas, tackle plastic pollution, and support a moratorium on deep-sea mining. 

“One year on, our research shows that coastal communities and the fishing industry have yet to see action on these commitments. This should serve as a wake-up call for governments to turn the tide and step up implementation and enforcement across Europe.”

In London, Kyle Lischak, Head of UK at ClientEarth, has been direct about what the data means for the government’s credibility. “People in the UK care deeply about the state of our coastal and marine environment, but fewer than a third believe the government is doing enough to protect it. That is a damning review of the government’s approach. 

“Warm words are no longer enough. The UK must now turn commitments into concrete action, including signing up to the ten principles for global transparency in the fishing industry and delivering a meaningful ban on bottom trawling in UK Marine Protected Areas that truly lives up to the promises made.”

The Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa last week offered the UK government an opportunity to restore its international standing on ocean protection by finally acting on the commitments made a year ago. For the coastal communities watching their seas decline, and the conservationists who have spent years fighting for meaningful protection, the window for warm words closed some time ago.

Click here for more from the Oceanographic Newsroom.