Fisheries in Danish waters are in poor shape. Aside from weak markets for fish and rising costs for inputs that all of Europe’s fishermen face, Danish fisheries are producing less fish because the marine environment is suffering. One of the many causes of environmental habitat damage is nearshore bottom trawling, which upsets the spawning grounds for the very species the trawlers are having difficulty catching, such as cod. To help solve this problem, the Danish government has proposed a restriction on bottom trawling in certain areas where fish nurseries are known to occur as well as near protected areas such as Natura 2000 shared with Sweden. For example, the existing restricted area would be joined with a ban on bottom trawling in the Øresund and Køge Bay; a ban in the eastern Kattegat, following the maritime border with Sweden from Læsø to Anholt and covering the existing habitat areas, Kims Top and the Great Wall. With large, continuous areas with a trawl ban, stated Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke, we give the seabed, the benthic animals and thus the entire ecosystem with fish, porpoises, etc. in the sea much better conditions to recover. Together with our plan to reduce nitrogen emissions and the work to restore marine nature, more trawl-free areas will help correct the catastrophic course that our marine environment has been on for far too many years.
In addition to spawning grounds, bottom trawlers upset the food supply not only of cod but all fish, birds, marine mammals, and other marine life, offsetting the entire ecosystem in Danish waters. Magnus Heunicke explained that one of the major pressure factors on the food base of cod, porpoise, eider, and other species is fishing with bottom-trawling gear, which is dragged across the seabed. In just one trawl haul in the soft mud bottom of the Kattegat, around 12 percent of the existing benthic animals die, which are of crucial importance to the food chain and the overall ecosystem in Denmark’s waters. The vulnerable areas designated in the announced proposal were specifically chosen to minimise this damage. Fishing faces a number of challenges, and a new course is needed, said Jacob Jensen, Denmark’s fisheries minister. Balanced fishing must take responsibility for a healthy marine environment and sustainable fish stocks, while at the same time offering the best conditions to be able to develop and adapt to the green transition, so that the country also has a strong fishery in the future.