Greece took a historic step for ocean protection on April 16, 2024 C.E., when Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a ban on bottom trawling inside the country’s marine protected areas (MPAs) — a first for any European Union member state. The decision shields some of the Mediterranean’s most vulnerable seabed habitats from a fishing method that has long drawn fierce criticism from marine scientists and conservationists worldwide.
At a glance
- Bottom trawling ban: Greece is now the first E.U. country to prohibit this practice inside its marine protected areas, setting a precedent for the rest of the bloc.
- Marine protected areas: Greece’s MPA network covers significant stretches of the Aegean and Ionian seas, home to seagrass meadows, corals, and species such as the endangered Mediterranean monk seal.
- E.U. ocean policy: The announcement puts pressure on Brussels and other member states to follow suit, particularly as the E.U. has pledged to protect 30% of its seas by 2030 C.E. under the Biodiversity Strategy.
Why bottom trawling matters so much
Bottom trawling involves dragging weighted nets across the seafloor to catch fish and shellfish. It is one of the most efficient fishing methods ever developed — and one of the most damaging.
The nets destroy coral, sponge beds, and seagrass habitats that take decades or centuries to recover. They also release stored carbon from marine sediments, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. A 2021 C.E. study published in Nature estimated that bottom trawling releases around one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the water column each year — comparable to the aviation industry’s annual emissions.
For MPAs, the contradiction has long been glaring. Areas designated to protect biodiversity were still open to one of the practices most likely to destroy it.
Greece’s coastline and what is at stake
Greece has one of the longest coastlines in Europe and a marine environment of exceptional richness. The Aegean and Ionian seas support dense networks of IUCN-recognized habitats, including Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows — slow-growing, carbon-storing ecosystems that are almost irreplaceable once lost.
The Mediterranean as a whole is one of the world’s most overfished seas. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization consistently shows that a majority of Mediterranean fish stocks are harvested beyond sustainable limits. Protecting MPAs from bottom trawling does not solve overfishing on its own, but it gives critical refuges a real chance to recover.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis framed the announcement in direct moral terms. “The ocean has paid a heavy price for its service to humankind,” he said. “It has been a vital source of life and livelihood. We have not been kind to it in return.”
A signal to the rest of Europe
The E.U. has been under growing pressure to restrict bottom trawling more broadly. In 2023 C.E., the European Commission proposed phasing out the practice from all protected areas by 2030 C.E., but the proposal met resistance from fishing industry lobbies and several member states. Greece’s unilateral move now puts at least one country ahead of the timeline — and on record.
Seas at Risk, a coalition of European environmental groups, has argued for years that MPAs without restrictions on destructive fishing are “paper parks” — protected in name only. Greece’s ban addresses that criticism directly, at least within its own waters.
Fishing communities will face real adjustment costs, and enforcement in a country with thousands of islands and vast stretches of open sea is genuinely hard. Those are not small challenges. But the scientific case for the ban — and now the political precedent — is firmly in place.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Euractiv
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ghana establishes a new marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- Marie-Louise Eta becomes the first female head coach in men’s top-flight European football
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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A diver surveys a vibrant Mediterranean seabed reef for an article about the bottom trawling ban
