“Our government cannot continue to allow supertrawlers to fish with ever increasing intensity in parts of our waters that are supposed to be protected,” said Thorne. After Brexit, when the UK leaves the EU common fisheries policy, it will be possible to ban supertrawlers. Fishing activities are limited in the protected areas but only outlawed in a few.Ĭhris Thorne, the oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, called for large-scale fishing to be banned in the areas designated as protected. Supertrawlers are legal in UK waters, including in many of the marine protected areas that make up about 25% of the UK’s coastal waters.

The Greenpeace data shows a massive increase in supertrawler activity since 2017, when they spent 475 hours in total fishing in the UK’s protected areas. The vessels – more than 100-metres long and each capable of catching and carrying thousands of tonnes of fish – spent 5,590 hours in 19 of the UK’s marine protected areas in the first six months of 2020, compared with 2,963 hours in 39 protected areas in the whole of last year.

North sea trawlers dredging up mammoths