THE FABRIC OF DEATH, 150 METRE LONG SCREEN PRINT REVEALED AT UNOC 2025, NICE
08.06.2025
⬆️ The 150 metre screen printed net emerges. Photo by João Daniel Pereira.
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At 19:00 on Saturday 7th June, on the Plage du Centenaire at the end of the Blue March at the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice, France, a world record-breaking screen-printed bottom trawling net was revealed to the public.
The net narrowly escaped arrest as marchers and onlookers did an impromptu sit-in to defend it.
The net representing the EUs efforts to carry on destroying marine life, is the world’s largest screen print, hand crafted and comprising over 1,000 individual screen prints. But it isn’t created to break world records. 150 metres is the width of the jaws of a bottom trawling net, which actually can be wider still. So wide that ten jumbo jets can fly inside. The depth of a bottom trawling net is 1.5 kilometres, a distance so long it would take us 140 days to print it.
⬆️ Watch the massive net emerge from the magic bag.
⬇️ And here’s the moment the Police intervened.
The fate of the Ocean depends on us all.
Our interventions depend on your support.
These huge bottom trawling nets are weighted and dragged across the seabed destroying corals, seaweed and catching any marine life in their path. This means countless sea turtles, dolphins and angler fish suffocated by the greed of EU industrial fisheries (under the protection of the EU leaders) and then just thrown overboard.
Bottom trawling is amongst the most destructive fishing methods, resulting in irreversible ecosystem loss and the release of massive amounts of carbon stored in the seabed. Banning it would avoid 93% of all EU fish discards and bycatch (marine life that is co-incidentally caught and discarded dead or dying into the sea or non-target marine life which is also discarded dead or dying overboard). Bottom trawling not only damages fish populations but harms the fishing industry itself, especially small-scale and low-impact fishers that account for 80% of the active European fleet and 50% of jobs in the sector.
⬆️ First there was one person and then there were many, onlookers booed the nets attempted arrest. Photo by João Daniel Pereira.
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The most maddening thing about bottom trawling is that without subsidies, explicit and implicit, it isn’t profitable. European governments spend €1.3 billion a year subsidising this disaster. Why are EU taxpayers funding an industry which is destroying their coastal waters? The answer is simple, as Prof. Chris Armstrong explains in this article, policy making has been captured by a ‘narrow economic elite’ who are only interested in extracting as much as they can from the Ocean as quickly as they can.
If the same subsidies and support were given to small-scale fishers, in terms of money and easy to understand policies, the EU would help both its coastal waters and its coastal communities to flourish.
⬆️ A child explores the net as the sit in happens. Photo by João Daniel Pereira.
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Ocean Rebellion says: “Industry has declared war on fish and its winning. The Ocean is so depleted that small fishing communities are on the edge of survival and areas of former plenty are now empty. Over 100 million people rely on inshore subsistence and small-scale artisanal fishing for their daily food and livelihood − often using the same waters targeted by EU trawlers. It really is a no-brainer to end industrial fishing. If fishing is decreased by 80% EU wide we will simultaneously restore our seas and help coastal communities by reinvigorating traditional fishing methods and rewarding Ocean care – what’s more all of this can start by redirecting existing subsidies.”
Reduce fishing by 80% end industrial fishing now
⬆️ Earlier Ocean protection protestors were joined by French MP Eleonore Caroit. Photo Guy Reece.
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Ocean Rebellion demands:
It’s time for zero nets and an end to bottom trawling. The EU, led by France, can start by really protecting Marine Protected Areas and banning bottom trawling across the EU fishing fleet. By sending out a clear commitment to the Ocean the EU will lead the world by turning the tide against marine biodiversity loss. By saying no to the global fishing industry and yes to its own citizens, the EU can restore wonder and pride in its seas. Which, with the right subsidies and policies, will help coastal communities become custodians of their local seas and care for the Ocean.
⬆️ The net seems endless but its only purpose is to put an end to bottom trawling. Photo by João Daniel Pereira.
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⬆️ Don’t Touch My Bottom (nor the seabed). Photo Guy Reece.
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