In a debate on nature conservation on Thursday (28 June), Labour MP and Shadow Environment Minister Toby Perkins announced that he “will stop destructive bottom trawling that is destroying our ocean ecosystem”.

This would be “one of our first measures” he said, if his party comes to power after the parliamentary elections. The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have also pledged to ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas.

Bottom trawling is the practice of dragging heavy fishing nets across the ocean floor, a method NGOs have called one of the most destructive, resulting in the loss of ecosystems, the release of carbon stored in the seabed, and high levels of by-catch and discards.

Last March, the Conservative UK government announced a ban on this practice in 13 of the 178 so-called protected marine areas, covering a total of 4,000km2.