Offshore UK Marine Protected Areas

The UK has 76 offshore marine protected areas (MPAs), which cover a total area of 261,543 sq. km. Only four of them are protected from destructive bottom-trawling and dredging. The rest are currently ‘paper parks’ that have almost no management, because of an unresolved conflict between European fisheries policy and conservation law. Blue Marine is working to ensure that these vital offshore MPAs are given the protection they require, starting with the Dogger Bank in the North Sea.  

In 2020, Blue Marine and its coalition partners were successful in influencing the government over the management of offshore MPAs, the biggest marine conservation prize in Europe. Greenpeace dropped rocks on the Dogger Bank to stop trawling and dredging. Simultaneously, Blue Marine threatened the UK government with legal action for failing to comply with the Habitats Regulations, which say that fishing should either be limited or excluded in protected areas.  

In January 2021, the government announced that trawling and dredging will be banned from 14,030 sq. km of UK waters, including the Dogger Bank. Blue Marine is working to ensure that this ban is implemented and that other offshore MPAs can receive the same level of protection.  

The start of 2021 not only saw success on the Dogger Bank, but on January 1st, 2021, Blue Marine’s three-year campaign against electric pulse fishing came to fruition when the UK government announced an immediate ban of all trawling of this kind in UK waters. This followed an investigation in 2019 and 2020 by Blue Marine that exposed the routine electrocution of the UK’s fragile North Sea MPAs by harmful pulse-trawlers.  

Underwater photos of Dogger Bank credited to Stichting Natuurbeelden  

Timeline of Success  

2021  

Destructive bottom-trawling is banned in four offshore areas including the UK’s largest domestic offshore MPA, the Dogger Bank, following the threat of legal action by Blue Marine.   

A byelaw, supported by Sir David Attenborough and Blue Marine through the Help Our Kelp coalition, protects 300 sq. km of seabed off the Sussex coast from damaging trawl-fishing.  

The Scottish government announces an emergency MPA to protect the critically endangered flapper-skate egg site near the Isle of Skye, after pressure from a campaign supported by Blue Marine.