November 12th 2024*

Mr. EMMANUEL MACRON, PROTECT MARINE PROTECTED AREAS.

So-called marine “protected” areas in Europe are not protected at all. Fishing gears that scrape the seabed and destroy marine flora and fauna, such as trawlers and bottom seines, are perfectly allowed to exploit them on a daily basis.

Today, 86% of Europe’s so-called “protected” waters are intensively trawled [1]. A scientific study even shows that for over two-thirds of the marine protected areas of Northern Europe, trawling is 1.4 times more intense inside the so-called “protected” area than outside[2].

Mr. President, you can’t claim that France “delivered” on the international target of 30% of protection of the ocean, when areas free of high-impact activities only cover 4% of French waters, and when these “highly” protected areas are located in the very remote waters of the southern Indian ocean… Around metropolitan France, truly protected areas represent less than 0.1% of waters!

In the French dictionary, “to protect” means “to defend against harm, to stop what can harm”. However, bottom-towed fishing methods not only emit high volumes of CO2, but towed fishing gears destroy marine ecosystems and biodiversity, and dislodge the carbon that was stored in marine sediments. Fishing gears towed across the ocean make no sense from a climate or ecological point of view. Banning them from the areas we have the audacity to call “protected” is the very least we can do to allow the ocean and marine biodiversity to regenerate.

Fishing lobbies have dominated public decision-making long enough. Today, citizens expect political leaders to take decisive action to defend our future.

Mr. President, have the courage to resist the pressure of a few unrepresentative industrial lobbies.

WE ASK YOU TO BAN DESTRUCTIVE FISHING METHODS AND INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES IN SO-CALLED “PROTECTED” MARINE AREAS WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY.

The content of this petition was updated on 12th November 2024 to better reflect the changing context and goals of our campaign in recent months.

[1] Perry, Allison L., et al. « Extensive Use of Habitat-Damaging Fishing Gears Inside Habitat-Protecting Marine Protected Areas. » Frontiers in Marine Science 9 (2022): 811926.

[2] Dureuil, Manuel et al. “Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot.” Science (New York, N.Y.) vol. 362,6421 (2018): 1403-1407.