Environmental Justice Foundation awarded £900,000 grant to tackle destructive fishing in Europe

The Ecological Restoration Fund (ERF) has awarded a grant to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) of £900,000 over three years.

EJF is a UK-based organisation working internationally to influence policy and drive reforms that protect the environment and uphold human rights. It does this through investigations and filmmaking to expose environmental destruction; grassroots activism to support and train environmental defenders, Indigenous peoples and journalists; and strategic advocacy campaigns to strengthen environmental protections. Its campaigns focus on five priority areas: ocean, climate, wetlands and forests, sustainable fashion, and environmental defenders.

ERF’s grant to EJF will go towards a new project, ‘Turning the Tide: Safeguarding Europe’s marine biodiversity from destructive fishing’, which aims to halt destructive fishing in Europe by enforcing existing EU laws. Currently, in European waters, unsustainable fishing has pushed several key fish populations to the brink, including mackerel, hake, salmon, cod, and herring. Destructive fishing, including bottom trawling, has devastated marine habitats: 79% of the EU’s coastal seabed is considered physically disturbed, and a quarter may have lost its seabed habitats entirely. Additionally, wildlife is also under threat from bycatch, the unintentional capture of non-target species. EU vessels are known to discard significant amounts of unwanted fish and sensitive species, including turtles and sharks, back into the sea, often dead or dying.

The project will focus on three core goals: ending bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs); securing the mandatory use of CCTV on high-risk fishing vessels to reduce illegal discards; and defending key environmental rules within the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) against industry-led deregulation efforts. These efforts aim to restore critical marine ecosystems and safeguard vulnerable species such as dolphins, sea turtles, and commercial fish populations like cod and herring.

To achieve these goals, EJF will lead film-based investigations, strategic litigation, and coordinated legal complaints targeting Member States that fail to uphold EU environmental law. The organisation will also engage in targeted political advocacy to compel national and EU-level decision-makers to act. Collaboration with other NGOs, legal experts, and industry players will amplify impact and help counter lobbying pressure from the fishing sector.

EJF will also monitor and influence the implementation of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) rules, build legal cases against illegal bottom trawling in MPAs, and actively contribute to defending the CFP’s conservation framework. It will aim for stronger protections for European marine biodiversity, more transparent and accountable fishing practices, and reinforced global leadership from the EU in ocean conservation.