Dr. Amanda Vincent on advocating for seahorses, their habitats, and an end to bottom trawling at global ocean events

Bottom trawling, where massive weighted nets are dragged across the ocean floor, is one of the most destructive fishing practices in the world. It scrapes away entire ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and ocean health.

At this year’s One Ocean Science Congress (3-6 June 2025) and the UN Ocean Conference (9-13 June 2025) in Nice, France, bottom trawling was high on the global agenda. Project Seahorse Director, Dr. Amanda Vincent, was there in person and presented our team’s latest research on its far-reaching impacts and why this practice must be brought to an end.

Here, Dr. Vincent shares her experience from the meetings and why these global conversations matter for the future of our oceans.

“I participated in two important ocean events in Nice, France, in June 2025. The first was the One Ocean Science Congress, which was as it might sound, a bunch of scientists getting together to share knowledge and findings about the ocean and the other meeting was the third United Nations Ocean Conference, which was more of a policy and political gathering with about 60 heads of state and hundreds of ministers as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and inter-governmental organizations. At the UN Ocean conference, I represented the IUCN, the global union of conservation organizations, in my role as Chair of the Marine Conservation Committee for the Species Survival Commission.

I went to these meetings for three reasons. First, to raise the profile of marine species, particularly, of course, our fishes, the seahorses. Second, I wanted to focus attention on ocean habitats, and particularly coastal waters, estuaries and lagoons. Third, I was determined to draw attention to the scourge of bottom trawling, a means of fishing that is non-selective, highly destructive and deeply problematic for human well-being. We need to be concerned about the dearth of attention to these issues in the agenda of such important scientific and policy meetings.

Just as I was preparing to leave for Nice, bottom trawling attracted significant new attention when it was featured in David Attenborough’s new film on oceans. The sudden intense discussions about bottom trawling were wonderfully useful going into these two global meetings. Our Project Seahorse determination to end bottom trawling was much more easily understood in light of the film’s clear video evidence of tremendous damage from these annihilation fisheries.

It was very timely that our team was presenting two technical papers on bottom trawling at the Science Congress. [1]One talk was on why people get involved in bottom trawling, why they stay and why they leave. We found that many fishers entered bottom trawling for financial reasons, sometimes because their selective fisheries had been damaged by trawling, but then found themselves trapped as bottom trawl catches also deteriorated. [2]Our other talk, on what happens when you ban bottom trawling – and only bottom trawling – interested many people because our literature survey revealed that recovery can happen, unevenly and slowly, but it can happen. Causes for optimism are sorely needed!

I had two technical posters at the meeting, one in my IUCN role, that brought to light just how many very different forms of marine life are obtained in bottom trawling, damaging their populations, and just how important bottom trawling is as a pressure on any of these taxa. In turn, our Project Seahorse poster provided the first-ever tally of how many fish species are caught in bottom trawling (more than 3000) and also brought to light the deeply worrying biases and gaps in our understanding of the ecological effects of trawling. Most notably, we found there are almost no studies on this topic for bottom trawling in lower latitudes, tropical regions, and developing countries.

In light of the sudden greater interest in bottom trawling, perhaps not surprising that our innovative studies on these fisheries provoke some media interest. For example, I did an interview with BBC Radio 4 about controlling its impacts and its management (or lack thereof). The Observer, a major British newspaper, reported on our new tally of fish species and how 1/10 of them appear on the IUCN Red List, while also acknowledging our concerns that many trawl fisheries now explicitly target all species, most of them to be reduced to fish meal or fish oil.

Despite clear media interest in fisheries, the UN Ocean Conference – and particulary the official government schedule – had a frustrating lack of focus on critical challenges from bottom trawling or other nonselective fisheries. While there was certainly a half day session on fisheries, it largely consisted of a general call to pay more attention to small scale fisheries, especially those involving women. While such widely expressed sentiments were valuable, few nations proposed tangible change to bolster small scale fisheries. Yet we know well that bottom trawling damages biodiversity, erodes food security… and penalizes selective small scale fishers.

Even with the lack of official focus on destructive fishing, much was still quietly happening. I was impressed by some of the avenues that people were taking to constrain bottom trawling. These included exclusion of trawling from marine protected areas, legal challenges to these destructive fishing methods, and calls to remove subsidies that allow bottom trawling to persist. For example, the Transform Bottom Trawling Coalition of more than 100 groups helps build the strength of small scale fisheries when confronted with industrial bottom trawling… and thus catalyzed the declaration of an end to bottom trawling in Ghana; Project Seahorse is proud to be on the TBT Steering Committee

During the five days of the UN Ocean conference, I was focused on trying to identify opportunities and options to make sure bottom trawling and other destructive fisheries – as well as species and habitats – are much higher on the agenda, receive much more attention at the next UNOC meeting, which will be held in 2028. I managed to meet many people who felt similarly and had complementary skills and expertise and great connections. I also identified many useful ways to plant our concerns on the agenda through formal and informal routes, through briefings and presentations, through workshops and consultations. so that I think we really will be able to gather momentum.

As we know well from our leading roles in CITES, effectiveness at UN gatherings is very much about preparation during the years before the formal meeting, the time period when ideas are identified, agreements are largely forged and policy is drafted. Project Seahorse will use these years until 2028 well, completing pioneer research, convening interdisciplinary meetings, forging new alliances and reaching out to large audiences. As the David Attenborough film is showing most people are inherently appalled by bottom trawling and would like to see it stop. We need to foster and tap into such public (and voter!) frustration to mobilize UN states to end annihilation fisheries.

 Learn more here

[1] Understanding the fishers to change the fishery: why are people involved in the bottom trawl fisheries in India? By Roshni Mangar, Dr. Sarah Foster and Dr. Amanda Vincent.

[2] What Happens to Marine Biota When We Stop Bottom Trawling? By Joana Dutilh De Capitani, Dr. Sarah Foster and Dr. Amanda Vincent