LONDON—Electric-pulse trawling, which is banned in many parts of the world, is damaging one of Europe’s largest marine sanctuaries, marine conservation groups say.
In place of heavy chains that stir fish from the seabed, electric-fishing trawlers drag electrodes that fire weak pulses into the mud, shocking the fish up and into fishermen’s nets floating above. While the method is technically banned in the EU, it blossomed in the Dutch fishing fleet to become their main method for sole fishing after the practice was approved for limited scientific research.
