Bottom trawling and the future of global fish supplies

The Food Chain

BBC

Arts, Society & Culture, Food

4.7 • 545 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bottom trawling is one of the most widely used - and most destructive - fishing practices in the world. Dragging heavy nets across the seabed damages fragile ecosystems, depletes global fish supplies, and puts the livelihoods of small-scale fishers at risk.

In this episode of The Food Chain, Rumella Dasgupta speaks to John Worthington, one of the last remaining fishermen in Fleetwood, UK, who fears a proposed ban on bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas could end his business. Fisheries economist Dr Rashid Sumaila of the University of British Columbia explains the global consequences of trawling, from overfishing to illegal and unregulated catches.

On the coast of West Africa, Aissata Daouda Dia, Head of Advocacy at Blue Ventures, tells us hom much coastal communities rely on local catch. Nana Kweigyah from the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana, describes how foreign industrial trawlers are devastating coastal communities. And in Malaysia, Adrian Poon of the Cinnamon Group explores the challenges of sourcing fish sustainably in a market dominated by cheaper, trawled seafood.

Producer: Izzy Greenfield Image: Getty

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm no longer ravenous. I'll no longer eat until I fall asleep. The Hunger Game, a new
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0:11.1	with these drugs. The uptake, the amount of product that's been sold, the amounts of money is cost.
0:16.2	What the drugs do, how they work, and the knock-on effects of their widespread use.
0:20.5	We'll be sitting here in three years' time going, oh, it caused problems that we're now going to have to fix.
0:26.2	The Hunger Game with me, Professor Gilesio.
0:29.1	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.5	See, this boat here. That was one of the in front of here.
0:40.0	That was one of the local fishing boats.
0:41.6	It used to fish wheels.
0:42.5	Couldn't afford to do it.
0:43.3	He had to sell the licence and he just tied the boat up
0:46.0	and that's how it's ended up over the years.
0:47.9	It's 7am on a warm August morning
0:51.5	in the quiet coastal town of Fleetwood in the northwest of England.
0:56.5	This used to be one of the biggest ports here, Hall and Grinsby.
1:00.9	Mm-hmm.
1:02.0	They're just so all day in now, nothing.
1:04.8	John Worthington has been fishing here for 40 years.
1:08.3	It's everything he's ever known.
1:12.9	I've been fishing since about 15 years of age. My grandfather and my dad did salmon fishing and shrimp in at Glasandoc. So it's been a family.
1:22.4	And like I used to go shrimp in when I was like eight years of age with my dad. This used to be one of Britain's busiest fishing ports.
	...

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