This is what the NGO Bloom claims based on a study conducted on the fishing time of all trawlers over 15 meters operating in the European marine protected areas (MPAs) of the European Union in 2023 using tracking devices.
« Our study reveals that in 2023, trawling was occurring in over 60% of the surface area of MPAs in Europe. In total, in 2023, the EU recorded nearly 6.2 million hours of trawl fishing in its waters, with around 1.7 million hours inside its MPAs.
Thus, approximately one-quarter (26.7%) of trawl fishing effort in Europe takes place inside MPAs. This fishing effort is not evenly distributed: three countries, Spain, France, and Italy, together account for more than two-thirds of trawl fishing effort within MPAs.
The most trawled MPA in Europe is a French MPA: the Talus du Golfe de Gascogne, which alone concentrates over 200,000 hours of trawl fishing in 2023. »
It adds that « trawl fishing in MPAs is also carried out by pelagic supertrawlers, gigantic vessels measuring up to 145 meters in length, capable of capturing 400 tonnes of fish per day, equivalent to the catch of 1,000 artisanal fishing vessels in one day. Among the vessels over 80 meters considered in this analysis, all have fished at least once in a European MPA in 2023.
For example, the Scombrus, a French supertrawler of 80 meters in length, spent more than a third of its fishing effort inside MPAs.
The Joseph-Roty II, a supertrawler of 90 meters in length, spent 906 hours fishing in MPAs, representing one-quarter of its fishing time (calculated in fishing effort).
