Editor’s note: Complementary analyses of 27 European locations released alongside new study provide details about bottom trawling activities, costs and benefits in each specific area.
London, UK (April 28, 2026)—The first study to measure the full economic value of bottom trawling in Europe’s waters calculates that the destructive fishing practice imposes up to €16 billion annually in net costs to society. Pooling data from more than 4,900 European-flagged bottom trawlers — together spending more than 5.5 million hours fishing on average each year in the waters of the European Union, the UK, Norway and Iceland — the research demonstrates that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from disturbed seafloor sediments are a major contributor to these costs. The study concludes that the net costs of bottom trawling to society are 90 times greater than the €180 million in profits raked in by the fishing industry each year.
“Our study makes it clear that bottom trawling in European waters is not just an environmental disaster, it’s an economic failure,” said Professor Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and one of the authors of the study, The value of bottom trawling in Europe, published today in Ocean & Coastal Management. “The bottom trawling fleet is decimating marine life in Europe’s marine protected areas, from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean. While we ultimately need to reduce bottom trawling across Europe’s waters to unlock societal benefits, banning it in protected areas is a critical first step — a win for the climate, the ocean and even the fishing industry itself.”
The study comes as experts and advocates increase pressure on government and industry leaders across Europe to ban bottom trawling, especially in MPAs set aside for safeguarding marine ecosystems. The industrial fishing practice, which involves dragging heavy nets — some as large as twelve Boeing 747s — tears up the seafloor, sweeping up a stunning amount of unintended species, called bycatch. Research finds that, globally, the churning of seafloor sediment by bottom trawling is responsible for injecting up to 370 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. The new study suggests that nearly a third of this (112 million metric tons) is coming from European-flagged trawlers.
“Not all big is bad, nor all small beautiful, but where there is clear evidence that the economic and/or environmental costs of larger-scale mobile fishing gears outweigh any societal benefits from harvesting the resource, then it is right that alternatives are found and such operations are phased out,” remarked Jerry Percy, Sr. Advisor to the Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE). “Small-scale fishers in Europe, on the other hand, prove every single day that we can feed communities by catching fish sustainably — without disturbing spawning grounds or kicking up carbon.”
This study calculates that 23% of the continent’s bottom trawling effort (in terms of hours spent fishing) takes place in MPAs across the area studied. Authors found that the figures vary by country, with more than a quarter of the annual trawling effort in the EEZs of Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Romania and Spain occurring in MPAs.
Bottom trawling’s impacts on marine life in the region’s 6,000 MPAs encompassing 900,000 square kilometers (347,492 square miles) are well documented. Research shows that populations of sharks, rays and skates were more plentiful outside the boundaries of MPAs than within the MPAs. Bottom trawling in MPAs undercuts the role these marine reserves play in replenishing fish populations outside their borders, called spillover.
Recent research catalogued more than 3,000 fish species caught in bottom trawls globally, including endangered animals. The impact to ecosystems of so many species being removed from the ocean is not yet fully understood but it is likely to be highly negative.
Bottom trawling’s costs dwarf industry revenue
Researchers analyzed bottom trawling efforts in European waters between 2016 and 2021, then compared its benefits (fishing revenue, protein supply and jobs) to its costs (fuel and labor, discarded fish, subsidies and carbon emissions), finding that the costs of bottom trawling far outweigh its benefits. While net benefits to the fishing industry alone are positive (estimated at €180 million annually), the net benefit to society is negative on the order of €2.25 billion to €16.15 billion (the range reflects the different valuations of the social cost of a ton of CO2 emitted into the air).
The largest single cost of trawling European waters is the social cost of CO₂ emissions — an estimate of the future economic damage caused by climate change impacts, including sea level rise and declining labor productivity and human health. The study estimates two CO₂ costs associated with bottom trawling: emissions from burning fuel (gasoline or diesel) and emissions from disturbance to carbon on the sea floor.
“Bottom trawl gear scrapes up the seafloor, releasing carbon that’s been stored in the ocean seabed for centuries,” said Kat Millage, marine researcher for National Geographic Pristine Seas and lead author on the study. “It is clear that the magnitude of emissions from trawling are substantial. Even when we use a very conservative estimate of the social cost per metric ton of emitted CO₂, society is left bearing a heavy economic burden.”
Beyond carbon, the study identified a series of additional costs stemming from bottom trawling.
- Subsidies: The new research found a significant cost to European taxpayers through subsidies. European governments spend an estimated €1.17 billion on bottom trawling to offset the price of fuel and other costs in the name of food and job security. However, without these subsidies, bottom trawling activity would be unprofitable for some nations, including Belgium, Spain, Great Britain, Portugal and Romania.
- Food Waste: The costs of food waste stemming from bottom trawling are massive. Up to 75% of the marine life caught up in bottom trawling nets die and are discarded back into the ocean, valued at €220 million every year. Discarded animals include unwanted juvenile fish, low-value fish, bottom-dwelling sharks like catsharks and dogfish, rays and skates — as well as sponges, sea squirts, sea stars, corals and sea pens.
- Fuel: Bottom trawling vessels require massive amounts of fuel to drag heavy nets across the seafloor. Norway and Iceland spend the most on fuel. At least half the Dutch fleet stayed in port at the end of March 2026 because of soaring diesel costs amid the Iran crisis, demonstrating the tenuous economic viability of bottom trawling.
Fisheries’ benefits are often limited to the revenue generated by the fishing industry. For this study, researchers also quantified some of the social benefits:
- Protein: Ultimately, bottom trawling only provides 2% of the animal protein consumed in all of Europe. This provides an estimated social value of €2.46 billion per year.
- Jobs: Bottom trawlers directly employ less than 20,000 people in Europe, providing a social benefit of approximately €1.78 billion per year. For comparison, small-scale fisheries in Europe generate approximately three times more jobs than industrial bottom trawlers.
“The results of our study suggest that cost-benefit analyses used in marine policy evaluations need to move beyond narrow market metrics and embrace the full scope of economic theory on valuation if they are to capture the full consequences of destructive fishing gears such as bottom trawling,” remarked Rashid Sumaila, Ocean and Fisheries Economist at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the report.
The researchers could not quantify the economic cost of the ecological damage inflicted on the ocean by bottom trawling (arising from reductions in habitat complexity, permanent changes in the composition of seabed communities and reduced productivity) nor the cost to other fisheries (arising from bycatch). However, research shows remarkable recovery of marine life in areas after banning bottom trawling, including a 95% increase in reef species and a 400% increase in juvenile lobsters.
Reducing bottom trawling makes economic and environmental sense
In the study, the researchers simulated how changes to the bottom trawling effort could impact the balance between costs and benefits. They concluded that reducing bottom trawling activity across Europe by just over half could increase overall benefits. Such a reduction would help restore Europe’s overfished seas, avoid large carbon dioxide emissions, and maximize food production by making European fishing more sustainable. The subsidies currently used to support bottom trawling could be directed towards the industry’s transition to less damaging practices.
“Ending bottom trawling in Europe’s marine protected areas is essential for saving billions in public costs,” said Professor Sala. “This move will save taxpayers money, protect marine life, boost the fishing industry and help us reduce global warming. If European governments were to direct just a fraction of the current fisheries’ subsidies to help the industry transition away from bottom trawling, society and marine life would win out.”
European leaders have already taken steps to ban bottom trawling. In April 2024, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced his commitment to ban bottom trawling in Greek MPAs by 2030; Sweden followed two months later. The European Commission’s action plan calls for “gradually phasing out bottom fishing in all MPAs by 2030, in view of their key role in restoration of marine biodiversity and the importance of the seabed for healthy marine ecosystems and climate change mitigation.”
“Βy moving to phase out bottom trawling across all Greek Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Greece is taking decisive action to restore marine ecosystems, support sustainable fisheries and safeguard the long-term health of our seas,” noted Prime Minister Mitsotakis. “It is the most effective way to implement the two major Marine Parks in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, bringing Greece closer to exceeding the 30×30 target.”
“Banning bottom trawling in all Greek MPAs would represent a transformative step in safeguarding Posidonia seagrass beds and other vulnerable habitats, enhance carbon sequestration, support the rapid recovery of fish stocks and generate positive spillover effects into surrounding waters,” added Mitsotakis. “In doing so, it would serve both biodiversity conservation and the long-term interests of fishers and local communities, strengthening the resilience and sustainability of the blue economy in Greece’s coastal regions.”
Journal
Ocean & Coastal Management
Article Title
The value of bottom trawling in Europe
Article Publication Date
28-Apr-2026
Florence Wood
Burness
fwood@burness.com
Jenelle Eli
National Geographic Pristine Seas
jeli@ngs.org
Journal
Ocean & Coastal Management
Article Title
The value of bottom trawling in Europe
Article Publication Date
28-Apr-2026
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