Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot

Not as advertised Marine protected areas (MPAs) have increasingly designated globally, with an associated advertised percentage of area protected. However, recent research has made it clear that many MPAs are not actually protecting marine biodiversity. Dureuil et al. focused on European MPAs and found that trawling, one of the most damaging types of fishing, occurs widely in these areas. Furthermore, using sharks and rays as indicator species, they found that many MPAs are failing to protect vulnerable species. Science, this issue p. 1403 Marine protected areas need better definitions and protection from industrial fishing to serve as true protected areas. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly used as a primary tool to conserve biodiversity. This is particularly relevant in heavily exploited fisheries hot spots such as Europe, where MPAs now cover 29% of territorial waters, with unknown effects on fishing pressure and conservation outcomes. We investigated industrial trawl fishing and sensitive indicator species in and around 727 MPAs designated by the European Union. We found that 59% of MPAs are commercially trawled, and average trawling intensity across MPAs is at least 1.4-fold higher as compared with nonprotected areas. Abundance of sensitive species (sharks, rays, and skates) decreased by 69% in heavily trawled areas. The widespread industrial exploitation of MPAs undermines global biodiversity conservation targets, elevating recent concerns about growing human pressures on protected areas worldwide.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Science

• Publication date

  2018-12-21

• Fields of study

  Geography, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1126/science.aau0561PMID 30573625
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Guidelines for applying the IUCN protected area management categories to marine protected areas

  2019cited by this paper
• Tracking the global footprint of fisheries

  2018cited by this paper
• Marine protected areas: Just for show?

  2018cited by this paper
• One-third of global protected land is under intense human pressure

  2018cited by this paper
• Beware silent waning of shark protection

  2018cited by this paper
• Coherent assessments of Europe’s marine fishes show regional divergence and megafauna loss

  2017cited by this paper
• Marine conservation: How to heal an ocean

  2017cited by this paper
• glmmTMB Balances Speed and Flexibility Among Packages for Zero-inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling

  2017cited by this paper
• Opposite Effects of mGluR1a and mGluR5 Activation on Nucleus Accumbens Medium Spiny Neuron Dendritic Spine Density

  2016cited by this paper
• Improving Fishing Pattern Detection from Satellite AIS Using Data Mining and Machine Learning

  2016cited by this paper
• Distribution of skates and sharks in the North Sea: 112 years of change

  2016cited by this paper
• The footprint of bottom trawling in European waters: distribution, intensity, and seabed integrity

  2016cited by this paper
• The Path towards Endangered Species: Prehistoric Fisheries in Southeastern Brazil

  2016cited by this paper
• European Red List of Marine Fishes

  2015cited by this paper
• Global conservation outcomes depend on marine protected areas with five key features

  2014cited by this paper
• Extinction risk and conservation of the world’s sharks and rays

  2013cited by this paper
• marmap: A Package for Importing, Plotting and Analyzing Bathymetric and Topographic Data in R

  2013cited by this paper
• The Substantial First Impact of Bottom Fishing on Rare Biodiversity Hotspots: A Dilemma for Evidence-Based Conservation

  2013cited by this paper
• glmulti: An R Package for Easy Automated Model Selection with (Generalized) Linear Models

  2010cited by this paper
• Beta Regression in R

  2010cited by this paper
• A better lemon squeezer? Maximum-likelihood regression with beta-distributed dependent variables.

  2006cited by this paper
• The Distribution of Chondrichthyan Fishes Around the British Isles and Implications for Conservation

  2004cited by this paper
• Disturbance to Marine Benthic Habitats by Trawling and Dredging: Implications for Marine Biodiversity

  2002cited by this paper

• Towards a temporal approach of the law of the sea: Addressing slow violence through legal longtermism

  2026cites this paper
• Identifying conservation gaps: A framework for evaluating national contributions to the 30 × 30 target

  2026cites this paper
• Quantifying depletion rates of benthic macrofauna from the Danish Seine – A ‘low impact’ mobile bottom-contacting fishing gear

  2026cites this paper
• Applying a metaweb approach to reserve design: large, well protected areas are crucial to maintain food webs

  2026influential citation
• A framework to support area-based management and monitoring of the high seas using remote vessel data

  2025cites this paper
• Global patterns and drivers of untracked industrial fishing in coastal marine protected areas.

  2025cites this paper
• A catch in ocean conservation.

  2025cites this paper
• Little-to-no industrial fishing occurs in fully and highly protected marine areas.

  2025cites this paper
• Role of science and scientists in public environmental policy debates: The case of EU agrochemical and Nature Restoration Regulations

  2025cites this paper
• A synthesis of research into marine small-scale fishers’ operational behaviour

  2025cites this paper
• Fishing activities within Spanish marine protected areas in the Mediterranean Sea

  2025cites this paper
• Marine protected areas stage of establishment and level of protection are good predictors of their conservation outcomes

  2025cites this paper
• Optimized Predator‐Prey and MPA Based Fishing Strategies for the Baltic Sea

  2025cites this paper
• Major data gaps and recommendations in monitoring regulations of activities in EU marine protected areas

  2025cites this paper
• Integrating GPU-Accelerated for Fast Large-Scale Vessel Trajectories Visualization in Maritime IoT Systems

  2025cites this paper
• Assessing indirect biodiversity conservation benefits of fisheries closures in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada

  2025cites this paper
• Five key opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of area-based marine conservation

  2025cites this paper
• Quality of marine protected areas is critical to achieving global biodiversity targets

  2025cites this paper
• Small-scale fishery as a driver of habitat loss in marine protected areas.

  2025cites this paper
• Up to 80% of threatened and commercial species across European marine protected areas face novel climates under high emission scenario

  2024cites this paper
• Computing ecosystem risk hotspots: A mediterranean case study

  2024cites this paper
• Over 80% of the European Union’s marine protected area only marginally regulates human activities

  2024cites this paper
• Temporal and spatial variations in squid jigging catch efficiency in the Oyashio Extension region

  2024cites this paper
• Fishing effort dynamics around the Galápagos Marine Reserve as depicted by AIS data

  2024cites this paper
• Size at sexual maturity, seasonal variation by maturity stages, and fecundity of the spotted round ray (Urobatis maculatus) and the thorny stingray (Urotrygon rogersi) from the northern tropical eastern Pacific.

  2024cites this paper
• A diverse portfolio of marine protected areas can better advance global conservation and equity

  2024cites this paper
• Habitat loss and small‐scale fishery: A controversial issue

  2024cites this paper
• Biophysical modelling and graph theory identify key connectivity hubs in the Mediterranean marine reserve network

  2023cites this paper
• Shipwrecks act as de facto Marine Protected Areas in areas of heavy fishing pressure

  2023cites this paper
• Perspectives and Scenarios for Coastal Fisheries in a Social-Ecological Context: An Ecosystem Service Assessment Approach in the German Baltic Sea

  2023cites this paper
• Framing future trajectories of human activities in the German North Sea to inform cumulative effects assessments and marine spatial planning.

  2023cites this paper
• Fisheries outcomes of marine protected area networks: Levels of protection, connectivity, and time matter

  2023cites this paper
• Spatial-temporal variation of marine fishing activities responding to policy and social events in China.

  2023cites this paper
• Identification of priority cetacean areas in the north‐east Atlantic using systematic conservation planning

  2023cites this paper
• Multi-Factor Collaborative Analysis of Conservation Effectiveness of Nature Reserves Based on Remote Sensing Data and Google Earth Engine

  2023cites this paper
• Measuring engagement with shark research in science, news and social media, and policy: A bibliometric analysis

  2023cites this paper
• Updated Checklist of Chondrichthyan Species in Croatia (Central Mediterranean Sea)

  2023cites this paper
• A systematic literature review of climate change research on Europe's threatened commercial fish species

  2023cites this paper
• Building a Practical Multi-Sensor Platform for Monitoring Vessel Activity near Marine Protected Areas: Case Studies from Urban and Remote Locations

  2023cites this paper
• Incorporating protected areas into global fish biomass projections under climate change

  2023cites this paper
• Application of AIS‐ and flyover‐based methods to monitor illegal and legal fishing in Canada's Pacific marine conservation areas

  2023influential citation
• Monitoring temporal and spatial trends of illegal and legal fishing in marine conservation areas across Canada's three oceans

  2023influential citation
• Trawl Fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand: Vulnerability Assessment and Trend Analysis of the Fish Landings

  2023cites this paper
• The future of marine fisheries management and conservation in the United Kingdom: Lessons learnt from over 100 years of biased policy

  2023cites this paper
• The ‘Paper Park Index’: Evaluating Marine Protected Area effectiveness through a global study of stakeholder perceptions

  2023cites this paper
• Come, tell me how you live: Habitat suitability analysis for Ostrea edulis restoration

  2023cites this paper
• An example of fishery yield predictions from VMS-based navigational characteristics applied to double trawlers in China

  2023cites this paper
• Turning the tide on protection illusions: The underprotected MPAs of the ‘OSPAR Regional Sea Convention’

  2022cites this paper
• Lobster reserves as a management tool in coastal waters: Two decades of experience in Norway

  2022cites this paper
• Improving protected area effectiveness through consideration of different human‐pressure baselines

  2022cites this paper
• The dynamics of the fishing fleet in China Seas: A glimpse through AIS monitoring.

  2022cites this paper
• When Ecological Analysis Reveals Hidden Human Dimensions: Building on Long-Term Community Participation to Enable a Conservation Translocation of Mountain Bongo in Kenya

  2022cites this paper
• Extensive Use of Habitat-Damaging Fishing Gears Inside Habitat-Protecting Marine Protected Areas

  2022cites this paper
• Unambiguously defined and recognized seabed protection targets are necessary for successful implementation of MPAs

  2022cites this paper
• Monitoramento colaborativo: A ‘ciência cidadã’ atribuindo novos valores às pessoas e à conservação

  2022cites this paper
• Assessing the use of marine protected areas by loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) tracked from the western Mediterranean

  2022cites this paper
• Setting Conservation Priorities for Marine Sharks in China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Seas: What Are the Benefits of a 30% Conservation Target?

  2022cites this paper
• Stakeholder Perceptions Can Distinguish ‘Paper Parks’ from Marine Protected Areas

  2022cites this paper
• Are marine protected areas an adaptation measure against climate change impacts on coastal ecosystems? A UK case study

  2022cites this paper
• ‘Corrigendum to “Beyond the boundaries: How regulation-centered marine protected area information improves ocean protection assessments” [124, 2021, 104340]’

  2022cites this paper
• Modelling the distribution of rare and data-poor diadromous fish at sea for protected area management

  2022cites this paper
• Management of bivalve fisheries in marine protected areas

  2021cites this paper
• Food for Thought Shifting baselines of cetacean conservation in Europe

  2021cites this paper
• Beyond the boundaries: How regulation-centered marine protected area information improves ocean protection assessments

  2021cites this paper
• Vessel monitoring systems as a tool for mapping fishing effort for a small inshore fishery operating within a marine protected area

  2021cites this paper
• Population and seascape genomics of a critically endangered benthic elasmobranch, the blue skate Dipturus batis

  2021cites this paper
• SHARK FISHING IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: A CONSERVATIONIST’S PLEA FOR ENHANCED PROTECTION AND SUSTAINABLE SPECIES MANAGEMENT

  2021cites this paper
• Emergent research and priorities for shark and ray conservation

  2021cites this paper
• Marine protected areas are not representative of chondrichthyan species assemblages in the Southwest Atlantic

  2021cites this paper
• Imperiled Common Dolphins of the Mediterranean Sea

  2021cites this paper
• Marine protected areas are not representative of chondrichthyan species assemblages in the Southwest Atlantic

  2021cites this paper
• Where Is More Important Than How in Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Restoration

  2021cites this paper
• Endangered Coastal Elasmobranchs of the North-East Atlantic

  2021cites this paper
• Shifting baselines of cetacean conservation in Europe

  2021cites this paper
• Opening a Marine Monument to Commercial Fishing Compromises Species Protections

  2021cites this paper
• Year-Round Movements of Sooty Terns (Onychoprion fuscatus) Nesting Within One of the Atlantic’s Largest Marine Protected Areas

  2021cites this paper
• Tracking industrial fishing activities in African waters from space

  2021cites this paper
• Ecosystem-Based MSP for Enhanced Fisheries Sustainability: An Example from the Northern Adriatic (Chioggia—Venice and Rovigo, Italy)

  2021cites this paper
• Identifying core areas for mobile species in space and time: A case study of the demersal fish community in the North Sea

  2021cites this paper
• Critical gaps in the protection of the second largest exclusive economic zone in the world

  2021cites this paper
• Weak biodiversity connectivity in the European network of no-take marine protected areas.

  2021cites this paper
• Challenges of Gauging the Impact of Area-Based Fishery Closures and OECMs: A Case Study Using Long-Standing Canadian Groundfish Closures

  2021cites this paper
• Spatio-temporal dynamics of the fish community associated with artisanal fisheries activities within a key marine protected area of the Southwest Atlantic (Uruguay)

  2020cites this paper
• Testing the presence of marine protected areas against their ability to reduce pressures on biodiversity

  2020cites this paper
• Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in marine protected areas

  2020cites this paper
• Marine Protected Areas in Europe

  2020cites this paper
• Evolving the narrative for protecting a rapidly changing ocean, post‐COVID‐19

  2020cites this paper
• Biodiversity Loss and Countermeasures

  2020cites this paper
• Critical Habitats and Biodiversity: Inventory, Thresholds and Governance

  2020cites this paper
• China’s policies on bottom trawl fisheries over seven decades (1949–2018)

  2020cites this paper
• Which management measures lead to better performance of China's protected areas in reducing forest loss?

  2020cites this paper
• Integrative research perspectives on marine conservation

  2020cites this paper
• Contextualizing ecological performance: Rethinking monitoring in marine protected areas

  2020cites this paper
• Adaptive management in context of MPAs: Challenges and opportunities for implementation

  2020cites this paper
• Revisiting UK Marine Protected Areas governance: A case study of a collaborative approach to managing an English MPA

  2020cites this paper
• Evaluating socio-economic and conservation impacts of management: A case study of time-area closures on Georges Bank

  2020cites this paper
• Underprotected Marine Protected Areas in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

  2020cites this paper
• Marine biology on a violated planet: from science to conscience

  2020cites this paper
• Evaluating seabed habitat representativeness across a diverse set of marine protected areas on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

  2020cites this paper
• Where Marine Protected Areas would best represent 30% of ocean biodiversity

  2020cites this paper