The UK plans to completely ban bottom trawling from 41 protected areas within English seas - big step towards meeting our commitment’ to help protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030. The government has – in recent years – established 178 Marine Protected Areas covering nearly 900,000-square-kilometres of English waters. However, these areas are multi-use, meaning that activities that damage the environment can take place if they do not directly impact the specified protected features. In 2023, Oceana UK issued a report in which it estimated that over 33,000 hours of bottom trawling had taken place in offshore MPAs. In 2024, this total hit 20,000 hours. Meanwhile, only 8.6% of the ocean is currently protected, with just 2.7% of that being protected effectively.