Part Two of a Special Investigative Report
Methods used by EU fleet routinely kill UK marine creatures in slow, distressing ways
And the UK’s authorities seem unable to act to stop this
The UK Fisheries Campaign calls for an immediate review of these troubling EU fleet fishing methods
In the first part of this ‘Marine Ecology’ section of our investigation into fishing in UK waters in 2025, we revealed the widespread polluting of UK waters by vessels from the EU fleet and focused on the littering aspect of this, including all manner of plastics subsequently consumed by our fish.
Whilst the EU fishermen’s systematic tossing of all kinds of domestic waste overboard, including plastics, is very damaging to the marine environment, this second report on marine ecology is even more disturbing.
Warning for this report : Some distressing content – Please read this before clicking on any photo
We must warn readers in advance they may find some of the evidence we in this report to be very distressing. We are therefore taking the unusual step of publishing highly-pixelated and blurred-out photographs with warnings of what they contain, which will only become fully visible if clicked. We took the decision to provide the unadulterated and shocking content for the clicked photos because we believe it is only by doing this that anything will change.
Trapping and killing seabirds, seals, dolphins, porpoises, other creatures
Amongst the most distressing of the hundreds of photographs from British fishermen we have looked at in preparing this entire series on fishing in UK waters are the photos of dead seals, seabirds, and other creatures who have suffered lingering, cruel deaths through drowning or dismemberment as they try for hours to pull free.
Photographic evidence – WARNING
Clicking the pixelated thumbnail will open a large ORIGINAL version which you may find distressing.
These poor seals suffered a terrible death. British fishermen recovered them with great sadness.
In Scottish waters EU fishermen use a method called ‘Gillnetting’ – Here is what it is and what it does
The public are aware there are different methods used to catch fish. Here we will focus on just one, called ‘Gillnetting’. In Scottish waters it is used exclusively by EU fishermen – and in particular those from Spain, France and the Netherlands.
© NOAA.gov 2025
Known as ‘static fishing’, an enormous net up to 2km long (which can be up to 10km) is laid like a curtain, with its low end typically resting on the sea floor and its ‘curtain rail’ being 10 metres above. The EU vessel than leaves the area, to check its other gillnets or to land those catches it has already harvested. Meanwhile the gillnet just stays there for a maximum of 72 hours (in theory), during which time the fish which live close to the seabed get trapped in it. They are typically caught by their gills: the ‘flaps’ either side of their heads. Naturally all manner of other creatures also get caught in all kinds of ways, including crabs, sea mammals and seabirds.
Within 72 hours the EU vessel is supposed to return to pull in the net. Even if it does so within that deadline, many of the fish caught when the net was first laid will have already been part-eaten by seaworms and must be discarded. Sadly, when this activity is unregulated, nets can lie there for much longer than 72 hours, inflicting far more damage and resulting in much of the catch being unfit for consumption.
Left unattended these nets continue to trap fish and sea mammals in perpetutity,
in a macabre process known as ‘ghost fishing’.
We have more shocking information below, but first here is a word about the campaign.
Political support for the UK Fisheries Campaign is building fast
Critical for any campaign desiring to effect change is political support and support from the media. The UK Fisheries Campaign is fortunate in having both and the momentum is building.
One of our first supporters was Tim Eagle MSP, Member of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood representing the Highlands and Islands Region. He is also the Conservatives’ Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Fishing. A farmer and family man, Tim has been actively involved in supporting Scottish fishermen and has thrown his support behind the UK Fisheries Campaign for the whole nation. We would like to thank him for his invaluable assistance to date.
A message from Tim Eagle MSP to the new UK Fisheries Campaign
“I am delighted to see the launch of the UK Fisheries Campaign and am pleased to announce my full support.
“I am very aware of these concerns being raised by fishermen. These are not one-off events, with pictures and reports being passed to me regularly. Fishermen are deeply concerned about what is continuing to happen in our waters, and serious questions must be answered.
“I increasingly believe we need a full investigation so we can be reassured that our vital fishermen are operating on a level playing field.”
“Having the Facts4EU Special Investigations Team on board is a real bonus, as UKFC’s first report shows. It is crucial we continue to shine a light on what fishing means for the United Kingdom and how we ensure post EU-exit that our fishermen are allowed to succeed.”
– Tim Eagle MSP, Holyrood, Edinburgh
19 Apr 2025
The collateral damage – catching species on the endangered list
A major criticism of gillnets is they are indiscriminatory, catching far more species than the target species being fished for. This is known as ‘bycatch’ and can be a significant proportion of the overall catch. In other words, this is a ‘blunderbus’ form of hunting, where a significant degree of collateral damage is an inevitable consequence.
Importantly, in amongst the unwanted catch can be many species of fish which are on the banned list as their stocks are at dangerously-low levels. These are all part of the many reasons why gillnetting is banned in many jurisdictions worldwide.
It is not only fish, and mammals such as seals, dolphins and porpoises, which can caught in these gillnets used by EU fishermen. Tragically, large seabirds also get caught as the netting is launched over the back of the vessel. As the netting sinks, they are taken down with it and drowned – even very large birds, as can be seen below.
Photographic evidence – WARNING
Clicking the pixelated thumbnail will open a large ORIGINAL version which you may find distressing.
The environmental damage – vast amounts of plastic pollution
These gillnets are enormous. The curtains rise 10 metres high and they can reach up to many kilometres in length. They can also be used in combination in an area, to try to maximise the catch.
A typical gillnet might represent an area of 20,000 square meters of cheap, non-degradable monofilament or multifilament nylon. The problem then arises when these nets are lost, as often happens. The EU fishermen certainly do not go out on salvage expeditions to clean up the tonnes of plastic they have left littering the seabed and killing all forms of marine life for years.
All photos © Brexit Facts4EU and UKFC 2025
The psychological damage on UK fishermen – the ‘EU’s bin-men’
For years these UK fishermen have been doing two jobs. For one of them they receive pay. For the other they don’t. What you see to the right is not something anyone would wish to experience. If you really want to see what can happen to a beautiful sea mammal as a result of being caught in these gillnets, then click the photo.
This is not an unusual catch. Every week the fishermen say they come back having cleared up an amount of plastic netting covering an area of the sea floor. If they had thrown this back instead of bringing it back to port, that plastic would have stayed there, continuing to commit its daily, slow murder of the rich marine life off the UK’s shores. This is known as ‘ghost fishing’.
All the fishermen know who is responsible, of course, but there have never been riots breaking out at our fishing ports. Their response has been to go to see the government agency in charge of such matters, to try to get the issue resolved peaceably. The problem is that they are being told by the agency that “fishing gear is being disposed of appropriately.”
All photos © Brexit Facts4EU and UKFC 2025
WARNING: Very disturbing content when clicked
The only reason we know just what a devastating problem this is in UK waters is because of our own fishermen. Every week they are hauling up the toxic waste left behind by the Spanish, French, and other EU fishermen. And yet the Government’s agencies deny this is a major problem. In our last report we showed how they said they do not monitor or collect any data at all about the disposal of waste – as if this were something that lets them off the hook.
The need for this national campaign
This is why the UK Fisheries Campaign has just been launched. The scandal we are exposing here is only one of many which revolve around fishing, the UK’s marine agencies, and the EU. Before we continue reading, would you consider joining the UK Fisheries Campaign? We need as much support as possible if we are going to restore the UK’s waters, do the right thing by the fishermen, and revive our coastal communities.
Here’s how you can help the UK Fisheries Campaign
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The economic damage to UK fishermen’s livelihoods
Because UK fishermen care for the environment and wish to see it preserved for generations to come, they do not simply toss the bundles of damaged netting overboard. Instead they carton it up and take it back to port, where they dispose of it in the free-to-use containers provided. Fishermen are tough but some of the sights they are forced to see in their working lives are enough to make even the strongest man react emotionally.
The sheer quantity of what UK fishermen are bringing to the surface each week as a result of the actions of the EU fleet would defy belief if we did not have all the photographic evidence to prove it.
Not only do UK fishermen have to waste their valuable time on this, they are also losing money as a result of French, Spanish, and other EU fishing vessels effectively ‘closing off’ vast areas of water with their enormous gillnets. When UK fishermen then enter those areas after the EU fishermen have left. (and hopefully have taken their nets with them), they find the area has been voided of any fish.
The law and how it is ignored by EU fishermen and the UK authorities
All vessels using gillnets in UK waters are required to use an approved ‘pinger’ to warn off sea creatures.
This comes under the UK Marine Management Organisation’s “Fishing gear requirements and Landing Obligation exemptions 2022.” In addition, all gillnets must be labelled according to strict specifications and, outside 12nm, marker buoys must also be used.
The fishermen we have spoken to say they have never recovered any EU gillnets marked with official identification labels and do not always see marker buoys used outside the 12 mile-limit. They have repeatedly drawn the attention of the authorities to the problem only to be told that the Marine Directorate is ‘satisfied’ with how things are going.
What the Maritime & Coastguard Agency told us
We asked the Maritime & Coastguard Agency for any information they have on inspections they have conducted on EU-owned vessels in respect of these legal requirements.
Last year the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) published updated regulations with regard to ‘Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships’. Amongst all the very detailed information is the following:
“Plastic has been prohibited from discharge into the sea since Annex V entered into force over 30 years ago.”
“The amount of marine debris resulting from the fishing industry is significant, hence specific regulations have been introduced into Annex V to control this category of garbage.”
The MCA goes on to stipulate that fishing vessels are required
“to record any discharge or accidental … which includes the accidental loss and certain other discharges of fishing gear, in the Garbage Record Book or, in the case of a ship of less than 100 GT, the ship’s logbook.”
“The details should include the amount and nature of the gear lost or discharged, the position of the ship (longitude/latitude) and the conditions of the marine environment where it was lost or discharged.”
– Maritime and Coastguard Agency, published regulations, as amended 2024
We therefore asked the MCA to provide links to all the records they maintain for monitoring and policing these regulations. Unfortunately they were unable to do so, as we reported in Part One of this ‘Marine Ecology‘ series.
In short, gillnetting as it is practised in Scottish waters by EU fishermen is an unacceptable form of fishing involving prolonged mass pollution, widescale and indiscriminatory killing of marine wildlife, and an absence of any attempt to apply the law and keep any records. At the very least a thorough and urgent review must surely now take place into gillnetting and into its monitoring and policing.