The EU has announced new protections for the Dogger Bank, one of the North Sea’s most important sandbank ecosystems, with a ban on mobile bottom-contacting fishing gear in designated areas of German and Dutch waters coming into force on 18 November 2025. The goal is simple and overdue: reduce disturbance to sensitive sandbanks and improve the quality of seabed habitats and the species that depend on them.
Backed by a joint recommendation from North Sea countries - led by the Netherlands and Germany - the measures were assessed by the EU’s Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) in March 2024, which concluded they’re a positive step towards minimising fishing impacts on habitats and their biological communities. They also contribute to the EU’s Nature Restoration Regulation targets to restore degraded marine ecosystems.
Dogger Bank’s rolling sandscapes are more than geology - they’re living, feeding and nursery grounds for a wide cast of marine life. Typical seabed species here include sea-pens, sand mason worms, brittle stars, rayed trough shells and thornback rays - all vulnerable to heavy gear dragged along the seafloor. Crucially for ORCA, the wider Dogger region and its slopes are important habitat for harbour porpoises and regularly used by minke whales and white-beaked dolphins. Protecting the seabed helps the forage fish (like sandeels) that underpin this food web, and that’s good news for cetaceans and seabirds alike.
The UK has already acted within its own waters: in 2022, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) closed the Dogger Bank Special Area of Conservation to bottom-towed gear, recognising the legal and ecological need to safeguard the site. The EU’s move now begins to harmonise protection standards across borders - a vital shift, because nature doesn’t abide by maritime boundaries. And we’re keeping a close eye on the UK government’s long-awaited animal welfare strategy which should be published before the end of the year as there are indications that a ban may be introduced in all UK Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
From November 2025, mobile bottom-contacting gears (the types that physically touch the seabed) will be prohibited in specified zones of the Dogger Bank within German and Dutch waters. This targeted approach aims to reduce pressure where sandbank features are most vulnerable, while still being workable for fisheries management. It’s part of the EU’s broader push to build an effective, science-led network of MPAs; more than 3,000 marine Natura 2000 sites now cover over 9% of EU seas - an anchor for the EU objective to legally protect at least 30% by 2030.
This is a meaningful win, but delivery will define success. ORCA is calling for:
- Swift implementation and strong enforcement, including effective monitoring to ensure compliance in the new closed areas.
Coherent, cross-border management across the whole Dogger system so that habitat protection in one Exclusive Economic Zone isn’t undermined in another.
Protection of prey species (like sandeels) through ecosystem-based management that recognises cetaceans’ dependence on healthy food webs.
Ongoing monitoring of harbour porpoises, minke whales and other marine mammals to track ecological outcomes and adapt measures as needed.
For a site often described as the ecological heart of the North Sea, this decision is a welcome pulse of protection. If implemented well - and expanded where science shows it’s needed - it can help secure Dogger Bank’s sandbanks, sustain the fish and invertebrates that live there, and give whales, dolphins and porpoises the thriving North Sea they deserve.
Main photo: Harbour porpoise (Chrys Mellor)
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