For years, fishing boats dragging heavy nets across the seafloor have been free to destroy one of Europe's most important underwater nurseries. But now, conservationists have won a major legal battle to protect it.
Dogger Bank is a massive underwater sandbank in the North Sea, stretching across British, Dutch, German, and Danish waters. Scientists call it the ecological heart of the North Sea because it teems with life: sharks, rays, dolphins, seabirds, and slow-growing corals and anemones that cling to the seabed. The area covers about 18,765 square kilometers — roughly the size of Massachusetts.
Though Dogger Bank has been officially protected since 2007, countries mostly kept those protections on paper. Fishing boats using a method called bottom trawling — dragging heavy nets across the seafloor that destroy habitat and scoop up everything in their path — continued working inside protected zones. Oil rigs also stayed in place.
That changed in June 2022 when the United Kingdom, facing pressure from environmental groups, banned bottom trawling in its entire section of Dogger Bank. Now, the Netherlands has followed suit.
In December 2024, a coalition of Dutch environmental organizations sued their government, arguing it had been letting fishing boats operate without proper permits inside the protected area. On May 11 of this year, the District Court of The Hague ruled that Dutch bottom trawlers must now obtain a permit and complete an environmental assessment proving their fishing won't harm marine life before they can work in the Dutch section.
Emilie Reuchlin, director of the Doggerland Foundation, one of the organizations behind the lawsuit, called the victory important but frustrating. "It's really a responsibility of the government to put the proper measures in place to protect ecosystems," she said. "Now it seems almost like you need lawsuits to make sure that any measures are taken."
Not everyone agrees with the ruling. Geert Meun, who represents Dutch fishing trawler owners, called the decision legally questionable, saying Dutch courts don't have authority over EU fishing policy.
Still, conservationists are celebrating. They say the ruling sets a precedent that could strengthen marine protections across Europe. The threats haven't disappeared entirely — major wind farm developments are now rising in the UK section of Dogger Bank — but for the first time in years, the protected areas are actually being protected.