Bottom Trawling – a Hot Topic, and Certain Death for Fish and the Planet

If you watched Sir David Attenborough’s Ocean documentary, you saw the acclaimed naturalist confront the horrors of bottom trawling, calling it “unspeakably awful”. Find out about bottom trawling and how you can help protect our oceans and everyone who lives in them.

What Is Bottom Trawling?

Bottom trawling (or demersal trawling) is a commercial fishing method in which giant, conical nets sweep the ocean floor, indiscriminately scooping up sea animals and wreaking irreparable damage to the delicate seabed.

This industrial fishing method accounts for about a quarter of all wild-caught sea animals killed for food each year, tearing up one of the planet’s most vital life-support systems.

“What we have done to the deep ocean floor is just unspeakably awful. If you did anything remotely like it on land,
everybody would be up in arms.” ~ David Attenborough, Ocean

Bottom Trawling Destroys Animals, the Ocean – and the Environment

In a popular episode of The Simpsons, environmentalist and animal advocate Lisa is horrified when Mr Burns unveils “the Burns Omni-net,” a giant net made from 6-pack holders that “sweeps the sea clean.”

But this cartoon cruelty mirrors reality – consumers fund this destruction every time they buy fish.

Dragging football-field-sized nets kills animals, destroys delicate coral and marine plants, and fractures the ocean floor, releasing carbon.

A four-year study found that trawling releases 8.5 to 9 billion tonnes of carbon, with 55-60% reaching the Earth’s atmosphere within nine years.

Bottom Trawling Massacres Fish and Other Marine Life

Many of the fish, shellfish, cephalopods and crustaceans sold in restaurants and supermarkets are caught by bottom trawling.

These nets also trap countless unintended victims, referred to as “by-catch”, including sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, rays, and marine birds. Dragged for hours, tumbling along with rocks, trash and other debris, these animals are hauled onboard dead or dying, and then tossed back into the sea.

Whether targeted or not, every animal is someone.

The global fishing trade kills between one and over two trillion sea animals each year – each a sentient individual who valued their life and struggled for survival.

Other Fishing Methods Are Just as Cruel

The fishing industry uses many gruesome methods to extract sea animals from their homes. Whether by net, hook, or illegal explosives, the fish experience pain and fear.

Gill nets are nearly invisible walls of mesh that trap fish by their gills. Many bleed to death, and lost gill nets continue killing indefinitely, a wall of destruction drifting through the ocean.

Long-lining uses miles of line with thousands of baited hooks to catch large fish like tuna and swordfish.

Tuna – powerful, intelligent animals – are often impaled through their throats or guts. In their frantic struggle, they tear their bodies, suffering for hours before being hauled aboard and carved up for sushi or canned for casseroles.

Whether by hook or net, sudden pressure changes when pulled from the water mean that fishes’ eyes bulge out of their heads and their internal swim bladder ruptures as fish experience what experts have described as “The Bends on steroids”.

Fish Are Friends, Not Food

Fish – some of the most underestimated and maligned animals on the planet – have distinct personalities and complex social lives. They feel pain and have sophisticated nervous systems.

Experts say fish are as intelligent as land animals – some use tools, while others woo their loves with intricate art displays.

Marine biologist Dr Jonathan Balcombe wrote in What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins “What we know about fishes is only a tiny slice of what they know.”

All fish are sentient and want to live free from harm.

You Have the Power to Help Fish

You don’t have to wait for laws to change. You can save lives and help the planet simply by leaving sea animals off your plate.

There are plenty of vegan fish products in the UK that offer that “fishy” taste without the cruelty. Check out a few of our favourites:

Sign up for our 30-day vegan pledge now and start building a kinder, more sustainable future.

As Sir Attenborough puts it, “We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters.”