Paris - Saba:
A study published Tuesday found that bottom trawling, a fishing technique criticized for its devastating environmental impact, carries a high economic cost of up to 11 billion euros annually in Europe.
To develop this assessment, researchers reviewed and estimated the costs and revenues associated with this practice, which involves dragging nets to scrape the seabed, in European waters, taking into account the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
Their models took into account estimates of fishermen's earnings, job opportunities created, the value of fish consumed, the cost of bycatch thrown back to sea, the amount of state aid, and the cost of carbon dioxide emissions associated with the fuel consumed and the release of carbon contained in marine sediments.
The result was that in European waters, between 2016 and 2021, the average net value of bottom trawling became negative, with costs ranging from $355 million to $11.61 billion.
Enric Sala, one of the study's authors, said in a statement from Pristine Seas, an ocean conservation program of the National Geographic Society that combines research, exploration, and documentary production, that bottom trawling, which also harms biodiversity, is "not just an environmental mistake, but an economic failure."
The study's authors stated that halting the use of this type of fishing could translate into a significant net economic benefit.
Enric Sala emphasized that "banning bottom trawling in marine protected areas would benefit marine life, the climate, and even the fishing industry itself."
The European Union plans to phase out deep-sea trawling in marine protected areas by 2030, but environmental NGOs are calling for an immediate ban on the practice.
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