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By Henry Sandercock2021-06-09T09:49:00+01:00
Source: Fionn Guilfoyle / Greenpeace
68,000 hours of fishing took place in 62 of the UK’s 64 deep sea MPAs last year, a 10% year-on-year increase according to Oceana
NGOs have urged the UK government and devolved administrations to ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas after new data showed a year-on-year increase in the time spent in them by trawlers.
According to analysis of 2020 data gathered by Oceana, 68,000 hours of fishing took place in 62 of the UK’s 64 benthic MPAs – deep sea zones containing ecosystems of scientific interest, such as coldwater corals.
This represented an increase of more than 7,000 hours (10%) from the 60,818 hours of trawling activity recorded in the UK’s 338,000 sq km of ‘blue belt’ in 2019.
Environment Bill updates leave green groups doubting UK s commitment to halt nature loss
Some of the UK s biggest nature charities have called amendments made to the Environment Bill this week weakly worded , arguing that they leave loopholes for the UK to backtrack on a commitment to improve nature for the next generation.
The UK s 2019 State of Nature report revealed that most UK species have declined since the 1970s, with 15% now facing extinction
Amendments were made to the Bill on Tuesday (8 June) after it was re-introduced to Parliament following Covid-19-related delays during the last week of May. The changes provide more clarity on a new legally binding target to “halt the decline of wildlife and nature” by the end of the decade, following decades of decline for the majority of native species.