Posted on June 11, 2025
Sir David Attenborough has condemned the damage inflicted on the ocean floor by trawling, calling it “unspeakably awful”. He was speaking to the Prince of Wales ahead of this week’s UN conference on the oceans in Nice which is seeking international support for a new High Seas Treaty.
Prince William backed this up in a speech in Monaco, calling the devastation “heartbreaking”.
The destruction of the deep ocean by dredging has been known for decades but it never becomes a major political issue because the impact is unseen. In a new documentary, Ocean, Sir David highlights the potential damage to marine life from some fishing practices, like bottom trawling.
Were the same desecration to be inflicted on, say, the Maasai Mara or some other visible and valued eco-system the world reaction would stop it. As Sir David said: “If you did anything remotely like it on land, everybody would be up in arms.”
The UN treaty was signed two years ago and needs to be ratified by 60 countries to take legal effect. It would offer marine protected area (MPA) status to 30 per cent of the world’s oceans to let them recover. So far just 32 have done so, including France and Spain – but not the UK, which still allows bottom dredging in MPAs around our shores.
In a bid to “reset” relationships with the EU, French and Spanish trawlers will be allowed access to UK waters for a longer post-Brexit period, a decision that has been denounced in fishing communities as a “betrayal”. But why should French and Spanish boats be allowed to carry out trawling practices in British waters that their own governments do not want to see in their own? The UK Government has dragged its feet over ratifying this treaty. It needs to get on with it.
