ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.

Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1629180

Anticipating how spatial fishing restrictions in EU waters perform to protect marine species, habitats, and dependent fisheries

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
  • 2AZTI, Marine Ecosystems Functioning, Pasaia, Spain
  • 3Aquaculture and Fisheries Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • 4Fondazione COISPA ETS, Bari, Italy
  • 5Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Attiki, Greece
  • 6Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Oostende, Belgium
  • 7IFREMER, Nantes, France
  • 8Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Bremenhavn, Germany
  • 9Department of Agricultural Economics, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
  • 10Section for Ecosystem-Based Management, Technical University of Denmark, Institute for Aquatic Resources, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study investigates the implications of spatial management strategies on fish populations and fisheries across EU waters, particularly focusing on establishing potential areas for fishing closures to protect nurseries, benthic communities, and biodiversity hotspots in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. The research addresses the effectiveness of prohibiting certain fishing practices in the context of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). We investigate spatial- and effort-based fisheries management strategies based on spatial ecosystem modelling, which provides insights into species interactions and distribution shifts, and bioeconomic fisheries models which incorporate finely defined fishing fleets and economic dynamics. Our findings emphasise that redistributing fishing effort without reducing overall effort and catches may negate intended decreases in mortality rates of sensitive marine species or restoration of vulnerable marine habitats to the status targeted by the European marine legislation (EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive MSFD). We highlight the complex interplay of social, economic, ecological, and institutional factors influencing fishers' decision-making in effort displacement. As the proportion of closed regions increases, potential effects on marine ecosystems can even be damaging in the short term to some sensitive species (such as the endangered, threatened and protected species ETP) and vulnerable habitats (with currently high relative benthic status RBS). This emphasizes the importance of the placement of closed areas and of combining area-based management with other fishery management measures. Findings from case studies in the North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Bay of Biscay indicate that prohibiting certain fishing practices in designated areas will likely induce short-term economic losses on specific fishing fleets. Where the prohibitions contribute to improved selectivity or productivity of the fish stocks, these losses may be regained in the long term. Finally, the long-term benefits for marine life that are expected through the spatial protection of vulnerable life stages and habitats will rely on the extent to which climate change affects ocean productivity and distribution of species and habitats.

Keywords: Fisheries, Spatial management, Fuel costs, Bioeconomic modelling, biodiversity conservation, marine habitats, Bycatch of birds and marine mammals, fleet dynamics

Received: 15 May 2025; Accepted: 01 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Bastardie, Astarloa, Binch, Bitetto, Damalas, Depestele, Hernvann, Lehuta, Letschert, Maina, Mahévas, Papantoniou, Püts, Romagnoni, Spedicato, Sys, Tsikopoulou, Van Hoey, Zupa and Rindorf. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: François Bastardie, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.