Have your say: how can we better protect vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas?

The European Commission seeks feedback on measures to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) from the adverse impacts of bottom fishing gears in the high seas.

You can take part in the call for evidence and the public consultation until 5 February 2024.

VMEs are fragile and sensitive areas, home to a wide variety of marine life, including many slow-growing and long-lived species in deep waters. Damage from bottom fishing gears can compromise the ecosystems’ integrity by, among others, impairing their long-term natural productivity.

In 2008, the EU adopted a regulation on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas from the adverse impacts of bottom fishing gears. The European Commission is currently evaluating the performance of this regulation and is asking for feedback to better shape this initiative.

The Commission invites all stakeholders, including the fishing industry, non-governmental organisations, academic, scientific, social, and economic partners, and citizens to share their views.

The purpose of this consultation is to gather information and experiences related to the initiative’s implementation. Stakeholders' perspectives on the regulation’s effectiveness are valuable and will assist the Commission in making evidence-based assessments of its performance. This public consultation may also help identify areas for amendment to the current regulation or the need for new initiatives.

The need to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems

VMEs are essential to the health of the ocean:

• They provide important habitat for a wide variety of marine life, and they play a role in regulating the climate. Seamounts, canyons, coral reefs, and hydrothermal vents are biodiversity hot spots.
• They attract large numbers of fish and plants, and organisms like sponges, corals and anemones that are slow-growing and long-lived.

Physical contact with bottom trawling, hydrocarbon prospection, laying of submarine cables, waste dumping or over-exploitation, might result in damaging VMEs, which will require hundreds of years to fully recover.

Background

In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing conditions for bottom fishing in the high seas (Resolution 61/105). It called upon organisations to adopt conservation measures to protect VMEs from significant adverse impacts of bottom fishing or to cease bottom fishing where VMEs were likely to occur.

Consequently, in 2008 the European Union adopted a specific piece of legislation, the Council Regulation (EC) N° 734/2008 on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas from the adverse impacts of bottom fishing gears (‘VME Regulation’), if there is no RFMO with competence to regulate such fishing activities. The regulation implements a scheme that requires fishing vessels to obtain authorisation to operate in a designated before starting their fishing activities.

By protecting VMEs in the high seas, the EU is helping to ensure a healthy and sustainable ocean for future generations.

More information

Protecting the seabed from bottom trawling by fishing vessels – evaluation

Improving environmental sustainability of deep sea fisheries with emphasis on the conservation of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) - Publications Office of the EU