Closed areas · By rule
37 closures where trawling is prohibited, watched from space. Together they cover 34.1 thousand km².
Trawling tows a net behind a vessel to catch what it passes through. A bottom (or demersal) trawl is dragged along the seabed; a pelagic or midwater trawl is towed through the water column without touching it. The closures here prohibit trawling specifically, rather than towed seabed gear in general.
The two kinds of trawl matter to every case. A closure aimed at protecting the seabed may leave midwater trawling lawful, so a vessel labelled simply as a “trawler” in satellite-derived data cannot be assumed to have been doing the prohibited thing — and the vessels that work the water column are generally the larger ones. Establishing which kind of trawl a vessel actually uses is hand research, one boat at a time.
A case is a reason to look, not a verdict — most are examined and resolved. Every case is judged on three independent factors and nothing reads CAUGHT until all three are strong and a person has reviewed it. How a case is made.
By rule: No-take zones Bottom-towed gear Dredging All seabed fishing
By nation: Scotland England Wales Northern Ireland Isle of Man Jersey
The full A–Z of all closures · Download the closure dataset · See live cases on the map