The objective of #TheBottomLine was to highlight the extreme devastation caused by bottom trawling to the marine environment - and the fact it still takes place in the vast majority of British marine reserves.
Bottom trawling – the practice of dragging weighted nets across the seafloor – is one of the most destructive human practices which takes place in the marine environment. It tears up marine habitats, disrupts carbon stored in the seafloor, and catches fish indiscriminately. Up to 80% of the fish caught in a trawlers nets is discarded dead or dying, while only target catch is landed, in order to stay within quota.
As partners in the launch of OCEAN WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, we engaged the growing wave of support for better protection in the ocean, working towards effective protection of 30% of the ocean by 2030 – a commitment made by every government in the world in 2022.
The UK has worked effectively in properly protecting its Overseas Territories, but domestically is falling extremely short. Indeed 90% of British domestic “marine protected areas” are still open to the most destructive fishing practice of bottom trawling.
The campaign and its associated film was created to make a viral moment within the global distribution window of OCEAN WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, giving the public a way to put pressure on the British Government and make real change for the ocean - on which all life depends.
Partnering with Atomized Studios (a subsidiary of Freuds Communications), we ideated an arresting campaign film idea to particularly highlight the issues around bycatch - the accidental collateral damage - of bottom trawling. With a history of hugely successful public media campaigning, the charity is well experienced in sending content viral during a public moment of awareness.
Engaging two of our best-loved charity ambassadors – national treasure Stephen Fry and actor Theo James, we believed we had an extremely strong conceptual idea with to highly recognisable public personalities for the film. Theo James was particularly moved by the devastating images of trawling in OCEAN WITH DAVID ATTENBOUGH and we locked the date to film the campaign short on the night of the film’s global premiere.
It was exceptionally important to everyone involved that the bycatch we used during the shoot be authentic - no mean feat for a marine conservation charity with not many ‘friends’ in the industrial fishing industry. But we managed to secure the bycatch from a small trawler after a single day fishing in the south of England.
Some 68kg of bycatch was sourced, and an audit on the catch found 27 species from throughout the water column - from the surface down to the seabed - and even within the seabed. The bycatch included five different species of shark or ray, monkfish, scallops, john dory, and sea urchin and countless juveniles. Viewing the bycatch was sobering, even for the seasoned conservationist and is a small insight to the unnecessary waste created from this destructive practice which takes place on a much larger scale.
The film was officially launched on World Ocean Day, the day before the UN Ocean Conference started, supported by a highly targeted distribution campaign in press and on social media.
The Bottom Line film was carried in The Guardian, Daily Mail, Oceanographic, the Daily Star and Hello! on World Ocean Day, followed swiftly by The Times, the Mirror and the Express. At the time of writing, over 80 earned press articles have published, reaching a potential audience of 600 million people.
Social media content has been seen on Blue Marine platforms over 1.4 million times and the film has been shared by scores of partners, funders and influencers, including Oceanographic, Minderoo Foundation, Blue Earth Summit, Sussex Underwater, Zac Goldsmith, Chistopher Ward and many more.
Steve Reed immediately announced plans to consult on closing 41 English offshore marine protected areas, as our OnlyOne e-action to email the Environment Minister topped 17,000 signatures.
The campaign is now in its second phase, to build support for a ban on bottom trawling to this 30,000 sq kms of ocean during the period of consultation. If the ban goes ahead the campaign will have successfully helped the UK Government deliver on its commitments to protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.
