In a historic move, The European Commission recently announced the protection of an area half the size of Belgium in the North Atlantic from bottom trawling, a fishing practice widely known as being the most destructive, particularly for deep-sea biodiversity and delicate marine ecosystems, such as cold water corals upon which other marine life (and humans) depend.

Activist and Goldman Environmental Prize winner, Claire Nouvian, joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about this and her organization’s 7-year journey that led to a French ban on bottom trawling, and a later EU-wide ban.

She discusses not just the importance of deep-sea marine life but the effectiveness of grassroots activism and how consumers can avoid bottom trawling and support legislation to ban the fishing gear. 

Related reading:

• Europe moves to protect deep-sea sites in Atlantic from bottom fishing
• Scientists map the impact of trawling using satellite vessel tracking

Episode Artwork: A deep-sea coral, Paragorgia johnsoni, with a large, brisingid sea star on its base, pictured in the New England Seamount chain. Image © The Mountains-in the Sea Research Team, IFE, URI-IAO, and NOAA.

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com.