900,000 Signatures That Banned Trawling Below 800 Metres

Deep-sea bottom trawling drags weighted nets over seamounts and cold-water coral that regrow on geological timescales, and for years the practice was defended in Brussels by a handful of industrial fleets. BLOOM, founded by Claire Nouvian, combined economic analysis showing the fisheries were loss-making with a mass public campaign — including a viral comic by the illustrator Pénélope Bagieu — that gathered around 900,000 signatures. France reversed its position in November 2015, the EU adopted a ban below 800 metres, and it entered into force in January 2017; Nouvian received the Goldman Environmental Prize for the campaign. BLOOM went on to win an EU-wide ban on electric pulse fishing effective July 2021, keeps pressing on bottom trawling inside France's nominal marine protected areas, and in June 2026 won a court case brought against it by fishing lobbies.