In a reversal of roles, it’s the German government which is about to be dragged through the courts following the filing of a new lawsuit that aims to end the ‘continuous destruction of protected marine habitats’ by bottom-trawling within the Dogger Bank Marine Protected Area.

Brought to the government this week by Friends of the Earth Germany (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland or BUND), the lawsuit intends to stop the destructive fishing practice that is currently – and severely – impacting both habitats and biodiversity meant to be protected under European law.

BUND – a member of the Brussels-based marine NGO, Seas at Risk, a group supporting the lawsuit – had already lodged an objection to bottom trawling on the Dogger Bank in January 2024. However, nine months on from being lodged, the German government has chosen to reject the objection.

“With this week’s legal action, we want to fundamentally strengthen European nature conservation law,” said Olaf Bandt, chairman of BUND. “As long as destructive fishing with bottom trawling is permitted in valuable marine protected areas like the Dogger Bank, these is no effective marine protection.”

The Dogger Bank Marine Protected Area is considered to be the ecological heart of the North Sea. However, bottom trawling is threatening and destroying the protected sandbank and its unique biodiversity. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are essential to stopping the decline of marine species, and EU Member States have been obliged to conserve them since the introduction of the EU Habitats Directive in 1992.

This Directive was established to create a network of protected areas, known as Natura 2000 sites, which must be managed effectively by Member States to achieve specific conservation objectives while protecting Europe’s biodiversity.

Additionally, the international community agreed to effectively protect 30% of the world’s marine area under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 – a target further supported by the EU and its Member States, including Germany, through the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the EU Marine Action Plan.

BUND argues, however, that Germany is not sticking to its obligation, opting instead – in recent years – to permit bottom trawling to “destroy half of Germany’s protected areas.” Marine biodiversity has suffered dramatic declines since the start of industrialisation within the fishing sector, and little is being done to effectively stem the crisis.

A recent study co-authored by Seas At Risk and Oceana, with contributions from BUND, found that bottom trawling still takes place in as much as 90% of the EU’s offshore ‘protected’ areas across the countries that were investigated. 

This, the NGOs have argued, amounts to over 730,000 hours of bottom towed fishing in German marine Natura 2000 sites between 2015 and 2023.

“Despite presenting themselves as global leaders in environmental protection, the EU and its Member States continue to use any possible loophole in EU laws, including the Habitats Directive, to allow destructive activities without restraint,” said BUND.

It’s a problem, said Tatiano Nuño, senior marine policy officer at Seas At Risk, that is witnessed “systematically in EU Member States: Marine Protected Areas lack effective management plans to ensure their protection.”

Bottom trawling activity within the Dogger Bank MPA has continued in direct opposition to the majority consensus among German citizens, 82% of whom stand against harmful fishing practices and support stricter regulations against it.

“At the beginning of this year, we filed an objection against Germany’s annual fishing authorisation, which unlawfully permits bottom trawling in the Dogger Bank Marine Protected Area,” said BUND’s legal representative, Dr Anna von Rebay, at Ocean Vision Legal. 

“The German government issued this license without conducting the mandatory impact assessment required by EU nature conservation law to ensure compatibility with the conservation objectives of the Dogger Bank, prior to issuing the authorisation.

“By challenging Germany’s ongoing refusal to conduct such impact assessments for fisheries, this lawsuit seeks to reinforce the implementation of European nature conservation law and establish a precedent for all EU Member States.”

This litigation is part of a pan-European project to deliver real protection and effective management of EU Marine Protected Areas, co-led by Seas At Risk and Oceana, with legal support from ClientEarth, and legal representation in Germany by Ocean Vision Legal.

“The European Commission has called on Member States to ban bottom-trawling in Marine Protected Areas, but we are not seeing the necessary action,” said Nuño. “Lawsuits like these will become increasingly common from civil society to make sure that, when it comes to Europe’s precious marine heritage, protected means protected.”