Environmental organisations ClientEarth and Legambiente – with the support of Blue Marine Foundation – have launched the latest in a series of legal actions targeting ineffective protection of marine protected areas (MPAs) across Europe, this time turning their focus to the destructive impacts of bottom trawling within Italian waters.

The case demands stronger protections from Italian authorities for seabeds and the species that depend on them at two key sites. The first, Tutela del Tursiops Truncatus, lies in Tuscan waters within the Pelagos Sanctuary – a cross-border conservation area jointly managed by France, Italy and Monaco, and dedicated to protecting marine mammals and their habitats across the Mediterranean. 

As Europe’s largest MPA and a critical refuge for bottlenose dolphins, the organisations argue the site currently amounts to little more than a “paper park,” with bottom trawling generally still permitted to continue within its boundaries. 

The second site, Litorale di Gallipoli – Isola di Sant’Andrea, sits in the Apulian waters of the Ionian Sea and hosts valuable seagrass meadows and reef habitats. Despite these conservation features, much of the site remains unmapped, with bottom trawling taking place there undisturbed.

Regional authorities are being urged to act on three key measures: their failure to properly map ocean habitats, their failure to conduct risk assessments for bottom trawling within protected areas, and their failure to take preventative measures against trawling’s destructive impacts.

“Protected must mean protected. Our research shows that local authorities in Italy are ignoring their legal obligations to protect these ecologically significant sites. That’s simply not good enough. Our legal action is putting Italian authorities on notice: the critical issue of destructive bottom trawling must be addressed,” said Francesco Maletto, Ocean Lawyer at ClientEarth.

Antonio Nicoletti, Head of Protected Areas at Legambiente, said the case is part of a broader European commitment. “We cannot call stretches of sea ‘protected’ when harmful fishing practices continue to erode the seabed, depleting marine biodiversity and fish stocks, and undermining the future of small-scale, sustainable fishing,” he said. 

“We are calling for bottom trawling to be eliminated from marine protected areas by 2030, as set out in the EU’s 2023 Action Plan for fisheries, and for the competent authorities to implement the measures required under the Habitats Directive to protect habitats and species – in particular in two marine sites within the Natura 2000 network: the Tutela del Tursiops Truncatus site in Tuscany, and the Litorale di Gallipoli – Isola di Sant’Andrea. 

“This goal must also go hand in hand with growing the percentage of protected sea, in line with European targets. With this joint legal action, we are therefore calling on the Italian authorities for real bans, strict controls and rigorous management of marine protected areas. Effectively defending the seabeds of these two key sites means honouring Europe’s commitments and securing a living future for our sea.”

Italian seas are among the most heavily trawled in the Mediterranean, with approximately 34% of all Mediterranean bottom trawlers flying the Italian flag. The practice involves dragging large, weighted nets across the seabed to catch commercially valuable species living near the seafloor, such as cod, hake, shrimp and octopus. It causes significant habitat destruction to fragile ecosystems including reefs and Mediterranean seagrass meadows, and undermines the ocean’s crucial role in storing carbon. Bottom trawling also affects marine mammals, fish populations and seabirds through bycatch, and by degrading the habitats and food webs they depend on.

Although Italy’s MPAs cover around 11% of the country’s waters, just 1% of them are effectively protected – leaving Italy far short of its ambition to protect 30% of its waters by 2030, in line with the global 30×30 target. 

The legal case aims to support that objective by pushing for more effective management of Natura 2000 protected sites and by tackling the activities driving ongoing habitat deterioration.

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