BBC's new Trawlermen series fails to address sustainability, coalition says

Shot aboard deep-sea fishing boats amid crashing waves that threaten to sweep the entire deck overboard, the long-running BBC documentary program Trawlermen offers viewers a glimpse into how a crew navigates one of the world's most dangerous trades.

However, the new series, Trawlermen: Hunting the Catch, launched in October, fails to "even briefly" address the environmental and climate crisis challenges or bycatch issues faced by the fishing industry, according to the Our Seas coalition of 135 conservation and fisheries organizations.

< p class="dcr-2v2zi4">Our Seas has written to BBC Director General Tim Davie to express concern that the series is "missing the opportunity to explore pressing sustainability issues" in the television industry. fishing.

The coalition, which includes the Blue Marine Foundation, Sea Shepherd UK and Fauna and Flora International, said footage showed decks 'writhing from life sailors' brought on board with trawls, including undersized crabs, fruit bats and even a blue shark, listed as 'near threatened' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. A huge amount of this bycatch is thrown back into the sea, having perished, but the series presents it as an "acceptable by-product of fishing", the letter states.

It noted that the BBC, along with 11 other broadcasters, signed the climate content pledge at the Cop26 summit last year, acknowledging its "crucial responsibility" to act on the climate crisis and pledging to generate content which "inspires... the public to make greener choices". In a statement, Davie said the move represented a commitment to go "further and faster to engage and educate the public about the climate challenges we all face".

"And yet the BBC's Trawlermen: Hunting the Catch series does not explore this theme, suggesting that it was deliberately ignored and that the creators of Trawlermen, filmed just months after COP26, failed to implement the actions in the climate content pledge,” he said.

Our Seas said it acknowledged the BBC's impartiality guidelines require its production "as a whole" includes the extent of the opinion to ensure that "no significant current of thought is... omitted". However, he questioned whether the BBC "adequately reflects our fishing industry as a whole".

A BBC spokesperson said: "Trawlermen: Hunting the Catch is a new observational documentary that follows deep-sea fishermen across the country as they risk their lives in one of Britain's most dangerous jobs. The BBC is committed to covering environmental and sustainability issues across all of its production, with recent examples including series such as Frozen Planet II and Our Changing Planet and the Go Green initiative on Radio 2 and the One Show, plus our extensive Cop27 coverage."