Thousands of dead fish dumped on seabed after getting caught in trawl nets

Scottish environmentalists are calling for urgent action to protect marine life after a video shared with Sky News showed the alleged illegal dump of wasteful bycatch.

Warning: This article contains images of dead fish

The film shows the seabed littered with thousands of dead fish, shellfish, and critically endangered flapper skate. Environmentalists say it is an insight into the true environmental cost of bottom-trawling for scampi.

Large volumes of fish and other marine life are routinely caught in bottom-trawl nets used to sweep the seabed. Charities say the unintended bycatch is a particular problem in prawn trawl fishery due to the small mesh size of the nets.

The fisherman, who took the video and asked not to be named, said it did not look like a one-off.

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“It appears to be multiple dumps because the fish are in varying stages of decomposition.”

“I felt a deep sadness especially when I saw the dead flapper skate, when I saw the rope on the base of its tail. The sadness quickly turned to anger for the wastefulness involved and mistreatment of this beautiful creature.”

Skippers are required by law to release flapper skate caught accidentally. Although bycatch is not a crime, the law does require all skates and rays to be released immediately.

“This clearly did not happen here, as the flapper skate had a rope tied around its tail,” explains Nick Underdown from the charity Open Seas.

“This shows the wasteful bycatch of other species caught in the trawl nets, which is often discarded at sea, hidden from public view.”

Open Seas called on the Scottish government and supermarkets to do more.

“The scampi industry and the supermarkets have made a lot of profit selling consumers a product that is often branded “responsibly sourced” while failing to do anything to actually resolve this issue,” said Mr Underdown.

“As a priority, the Scottish government must reinstate sensible spatial limits on this type of fishing in our coastal seas.”

The charity also called for restricting trawling in sensitive sea lochs and coastal areas and bringing in better vessel monitoring to identify hotspots of harm.

Sky News has contacted the Scottish government for comment.