The UK authorities have announced its intention of ending demeral trawling in marine protected areas, thinly disguised as a consultation. The announcement has been made to coincide with the United Nations Ocean Conference.
This consultation has been launched by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in partnership with DEFRA, and run for twelve weeks from 9th June to 1st September. According to DEFRA, the consultation will invite marine and fisheries stakeholders to share their views and evidence on the prohibition of destructive bottom-towed fishing gear that could affect approximately 30,000 square kilometres of marine space spanning 41 MPAs.
‘Bottom trawling is damaging our precious marine wildlife and habitats,’ stated Environment Secretary Steve Reed, making it clear in advance that this is less a consultation and more an announcement of what the department expects to take place.
‘Without urgent action, our oceans will be irreversibly destroyed – depriving us, and generations to come, of the sea life on which we all enjoy.’
There’s nothing impartial about the startlingly partisan DEFRA announcement of the consultation launch, which could be mistaken for a policy statement from an NGO rather than what it purports to be, and even goes so far as to include carefully selected statements by some of the stakeholders the process is designed to consult.
