Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Brian Iddon (Labour). It was answered on Thursday, 14 December 2006 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Bottom Trawling

Question: Does my hon. Friend agree that we ought to be worried about not only the depletion of fish stocks, but the considerable damage that bottom trawlers do to habitats at the bottom of the oceans that have taken thousands of years to build up, including cold-water coral beds? Is it not time to consider having sites of special scientific interest at sea, as we have on land?

Answer: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The tragedy of such destruction is that in many cases very valuable and vulnerable ecosystems that have built up over thousands of years are destroyed in a matter of seconds. We face a huge challenge in international waters where governance is often weak, if not non-existent, and where enforcement can also be completely absent. He is also right that we need to take action in our own waters. We have been doing so by protecting areas such as the Darwin Mounds—we are the first European Union country to do such a thing. We are committed to having exactly the network of marine protected areas that my hon. Friend—and, I am sure, all Members—would like there to be.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 454 c1001
Session: 2006-07
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Fisheries Environment protection Nature conservation Coral Coral reefs Bottom trawling
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk