This year\u2019s climate COP is taking place in Bel\u00e9m, at the heart of the Amazon rainforest \u2013 one of the planet\u2019s green lungs and a long-standing symbol of the climate fight. But the world needs to look beyond the forest, to the part of the planet that\u2019s blue.<\/p>\n
The destruction of the rainforest happens in plain sight. But bottom trawling \u2013 a practice in which heavy fishing nets are dragged across the ocean floor, dredging up carbon that\u2019s long been stored in the seabed \u2013 is a kind of deforestation beneath the waves. Bottom trawling is invisible to us on land, but it has devastating effects on the climate and ecosystems. COP30 in Bel\u00e9m is the moment to finally take a stand against the practice.<\/p>\n
Over the last two years, science has revealed the scale of the problem.\u00a0Recent research<\/a>\u00a0found that between 55% and 60% of all trawling-induced carbon dioxide makes it into the atmosphere over seven to nine years. That means that, every year, bottom trawling releases 370 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That\u2019s about as much as the entire United Kingdom\u00a0emits annually<\/a>, and double the annual emissions from fuel combustion of the entire global fishing fleet of about 4 million vessels.<\/p>\n And the damage isn\u2019t just to the atmosphere. Between 40% and 45% of the carbon dioxide that bottom trawling dislodges from the seabed remains in the ocean, where it turns the water more acidic \u2013 harming marine plants and animals where the bottom trawling took place.<\/p>\n Economically, the picture is no better. Bottom trawling largely survives on public money. Despite the minimal returns, governments across Europe subsidise bottom trawling to the tune of \u20ac1.3 billion every year<\/a>, a figure that is nearly equivalent to the value of the jobs the industry creates.<\/p>\n But bottom trawling is still a regular fishing practice \u2013 even in areas that are meant to be protected. A\u00a0recent investigation<\/a>\u00a0by the conservation group Oceana found that, in 2024, more than 100 bottom trawling vessels spent some 17,000 hours fishing in six French \u201cmarine nature parks.\u201d That\u2019s equivalent to one vessel trawling nonstop, night and day, for nearly two years straight. Across Europe, more than 11% of marine areas are designated for protection, but\u00a0only 2%<\/a>\u00a0actually have management plans in place. The rest remains vulnerable to trawling.<\/p>\n