Giant supertrawlers routinely fish in Scotland’s marine protected areas, damaging precious marine life and fish populations, despite the UK Government having had the powers to stop them since Brexit.
An investigation by Greenpeace has found that the waters most heavily fished by foreign supertrawlers in the last five years were off the coast of Scotland and included seas around Shetland and the Hebrides.
Supertrawlers are massive industrial freezer trawlers measuring more than 100 metres in length. Using enormous nets, they catch hundreds of tonnes of pelagic fish like herring and blue whiting in a single day.
But supertrawlers also damage rare habitats and unintentionally catch large quantities of species including dolphins and porpoises as well as sharks, seals and rays.
Greenpeace has accused the UK Government of “failing our protected seas” while calling for a ban on “supertrawlers, and other types of industrial fishing” from marine protected areas.
The UK Government said it was “carefully considering the next steps for protecting our marine protected areas”. The Scottish Government said herring and blue whiting are not protected features in MPAs.
Greenpeace investigators found that from January 2020 to January this year, 26 supertrawlers spent significant time fishing in 44 of the UK’s MPAs.
All the supertrawlers were operating legally despite the UK Government having had the power to ban them from operating in British waters since leaving the EU, Greenpeace said.
The Scottish marine protected areas fished by the supertrawlers were: Wyville Thomson Ridge, West of Scotland, Central Fladen, Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope and Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt.
Pobie Bank Reef, West Shetland Shelf, Seas off Foula, The Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount were also fished by supertrawlers.
These MPAs were set up to protect precious features like seamounts created by extinct volcanoes, stony reefs and soft corals. They also support important species including crustaceans, deep-sea sponges, great skuas, fulmars, gulls and puffins.
The five supertrawlers Greenpeace investigators identified as having spent the most time fishing in UK waters between 2020 and 2025 were Willem van der Zwan (flagged to Netherlands), Margiris (Lithuania), Helen Mary (Germany), Sch 81 Carolien (Netherlands) and Afrika (Netherlands).
The Margiris (143 metres) and Willem van der Zwan (142.5 metres) are two of the biggest supertrawlers on Earth.
Greenpeace pointed out these vessels land the vast majority of their catch abroad and claimed that the “hoovering up of fish gives little economic benefit to the UK”.
Erica Finnie, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said marine protected areas should be “places for fish, marine biodiversity and habitats to rest and recover from the damage caused by human activities”. She added: “But the government is making a mockery of our MPAs by allowing these places to be routinely fished – despite having had the powers to ban industrial fishing vessels from protected waters since we left the EU.
“By allowing industrial fishing to continue in our protected areas, the government is degrading entire MPAs from the north of Scotland to the south of Cornwall.”
The government is making a mockery of our MPAs by allowing these places to be routinely fished – despite having had the powers to ban industrial fishing vessels from protected waters since we left the EU.
Erica Finnie, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK.
A UK government spokesperson said it is committed to banning “destructive bottom trawling” where it is damaging our protected seabed habitats.
They added: “Most marine protected areas are designated to protect seabed habitats, such as reef and sediment habitats, which these large trawlers operating in the open waters are unlikely to damage.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said MPAs are managed “according to the needs of their protected features and their conservation objectives”, and that its MPA network “mainly focuses” on the protection of sensitive seabed habitats.
They added: “Fisheries management measures for offshore MPAs were consulted on in autumn 2024 and the key findings are currently being considered, along with others the results of other statutory assessments, prior to a decision on final measures.
“In addition, all fishing vessels in Scottish waters are subject to a wide range of rules and regulations with fishery enforcement authorities using a wide range of assets in place to effectively enforce compliance – including compliance vessels, surveillance aircraft, and physical and office based inspections by UK Fisheries Monitoring Centre and Marine Enforcement officers.”
In Scotland, MPAs span 247 sites, covering 37 per cent of Scottish seas. These areas were designated for protection in 2014. Inside these conservation zones, activities like fishing, aquaculture and energy infrastructure are allowed, if they are licensed and in line with legislation.
Last year, The Ferret revealed there have been more than 2,000 oil spills in the North Sea since 2011, including 215 in marine protected areas. Some 308 tonnes of oil spilled into protected waters over the 13-year period.
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Main image: Suzanne Plunkett / Greenpeace
