After Britain handed France 23 additional licenses to French vessels on Friday after claiming the UK was violating the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement, the move could have serious consequences for the future of the planet. Marine biologists long ago discovered that bottom trawling and dredging destroy coastal habitats.

But in recent years, they have also discovered that large amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted during the process, which ends up either in the atmosphere or in the ocean, both of which have dangerous impacts.

Bottom trawling involves dragging heavy nets over the seabed to catch fish.

This is a method preferred by commercial fishing companies because it allows them to catch large amounts of product at one go.

Earlier this year, a scary article published by Nature found that 1.3 percent of the ocean floor is trawled each year.

This releases almost 1.5 gigatons of CO2 per year.

Dr Trisha Atwood, a carbon specialist at Utah State University and co-author of the study, said, “It’s roughly equal to the entire global aviation industry.

“The discoveries blew people away. We are finding that a lot more underlying carbon is stored in the seabed than we thought. “

Vessels operating in UK waters under the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy until this year rank fourth in the world for total trawler emissions.

It was behind, China, which is the worst, as well as Italy and Russia.

Melissa Moore from pan-European environmental group Oceana said: “It’s strange, France is indeed asking to come and destroy the habitats of another country.”

And despite Mr Macron’s claims that Britain is still withholding around 80 licenses out of 350, Gregory Guida, France’s Home Secretary for Jersey, says handing out so many licenses is a dangerous game.

He said: “Jersey is overfished and these boats are getting bigger and bigger, sometimes three times the catch.
“We cannot allow this water to be plundered. This is very dangerous for conservation and constitutes a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

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“Yet the EU has just slammed its fist on the table. It is a huge disappointment for me that French environmentalists are silent.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote for The Telegraph: “Macron’s demand for carte blanche fishing based on past practices smacks of eco-vandalism.”

Marine conservationists have made it clear that giant trawlers, unlike local fishermen or low-impact coastal boats, pose a serious threat that must be reduced in order to address the climate crisis.

Charles Clover, Blue Marine Foundation, said: “Bottom trawling is an abusive stack industry, and we need to get rid of it all.

“We would have many more fishing communities if it weren’t for these dinosaurs crossing the seas.

“We could have four times as many fish in restored habitats, as we have shown in Lyme Bay.

“The French government is completely blinded on this subject. They are trying to defend the indefensible.

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But while Mr Macron has come under fire for trying to break into UK waters and cause environmental destruction, the UK has also done very little itself to prevent trawler damage. background.

Currently, there is no general ban on bottom trawling in nearby coastal waters.

But Britain has banned bottom trawling on the Dogger Bank to comply with the Habitats Directive this year.

This decision which could not have been carried out when Great Britain was part of the EU.

And while EU members like France have accused Britain of violating the ATT as it advocates for more fishing licenses for UK waters, some experts argue those claims are false.

Mr Clover said: “They refuse to accept that the ATT allows Britain to take reasonable steps under the precautionary principle to prevent overfishing and protect the environment.

“We weren’t able to protect our fish stocks under the common fisheries policy, and now we are. “

But last June, the European Commission was called on to develop a definition of super trawlers and to consider measures to limit their activities in European waters, in particular by banning their activities in protected areas following a vote in Parliament. European.

The EU had already banned bottom trawling in deep water in 2016.

In line with the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, the ban restricted the use of the fishing gear most harmful to biodiversity, including on the seabed.