17/12/2021 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission told a conference on the future of the seas on Friday 17 December that the future ‘Action Plan to conserve fisheries resources and protect marine ecosystems’ will address the problem of deep-sea trawling. Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said that the action plan will include “very concrete measures”, such as reducing by-catches of non-commercial species, ensuring that juvenile fish are not caught and “addressing bottom trawling, which is so harmful to the seabed”. He added: “All of these actions will also have the added benefit of tackling the overexploitation of marine resources”. On Monday 20 December, several NGOs (Oceana, Seas at Risk, Our Fish) will hand the Commissioner a petition signed by 150,0000 people calling for an end to bottom trawling in EU marine protected areas. (LC)