Hiddink, J. G., et al. (2023).“Quantifying the Carbon Benefits of Ending Bottom Trawling”, Nature, 617(7960), E1-E2.
This paper is a scientific critique of a previous high-profile study that claimed ending bottom trawling would deliver very large global carbon benefits. The authors argue that those claims substantially overestimate carbon dioxide release from trawling, because the original model applied decay rates suitable for fresh, highly reactive carbon to old, stable carbon buried in seabed sediments. They show that most sedimentary carbon is naturally broken down very slowly and that the original assumptions inflate estimated CO₂ emissions by two to three orders of magnitude. The critique also highlights that the original study failed to properly distinguish between natural carbon mineralisation and trawling-induced effects, making its estimates unsuitable for policy or carbon-credit schemes. Overall, the authors conclude that there is currently insufficient scientific evidence to justify claims that banning bottom trawling would deliver large, reliable climate benefits, and warn against using such estimates to guide fisheries or climate policy.
