Food & Drink
‘A sham’
UK marine protected areas suffer over 20,000 hours of suspected bottom trawling.
20 May 2025
Two major investigations have uncovered the predatory use of marine resources and public funds organised by five Dutch industrial giants, known as the ‘Big Five’, operating in the world’s oceans.
The first investigation, conducted with the Dutch consortium of investigative journalists Spit, pieces together for the first time the sprawling and opaque empire of the Big Five Dutch industrial groups which, under the veil of competition, are in reality linked by common financial interests within more than 400 subsidiaries.
The Big Five – Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P), Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family – own 230 vessels, all except one of which engage in the most destructive types of fishing: pelagic trawling, bottom trawling and demersal seining.
They form an extremely powerful oligopoly that dominates European fishing, captures fishing quotas at the expense of small-scale fishermen and poses serious problems to the smooth running of democracies through their influence over public decision-making.
In France, the Big Five have strategically invested in Brittany and Boulogne-sur-Mer through their French subsidiaries. With 24 vessels, they control a significant proportion of French fishing quotas.
The investigation also reveals that, in response to the progressive depletion of fish populations for which these companies are largely responsible, several of these fishing giants are shifting their investments towards real estate.
This reflects a harmful extractive logic that goes against the sustainable management objective that European fisheries must follow.
The second investigation provides a unique analysis of public subsidies granted to Dutch shipowners in the aftermath of Brexit.
It reveals how European public funds have been seized by the Big Five and used to compensate trawling losses and dismantle vessels that have extensively practised electric fishing under illegal licenses and public funds.
This aid comes when the Dutch government and industrialists are fighting to re-authorise the use of electricity for fishing, the only technological device that would enable them to catch every last fish and delay their demise.
European taxpayers’ money has thus been used to dismantle electric trawlers (€61.5 million out of a €135 million fund), which were banned in 2021, and most of which operated illegally.
In addition, six factory ships, between 94 and 142 meters long and all belonging to the Big Five, received €22.6 million in ‘temporary cessation’ in Brexit subsidies — a potentially unlawful move.
The analysis shows that these ships did not reduce or suspend their fishing activities, even temporarily.
In fact, the time they spent at dock remained largely unchanged from previous years. In addition, all six factory ships had obtained a licence to fish in British waters.
These investigations show that the plundering of the ocean is the culmination of an extractivist economic system, supported by institutions, which diverts public money to the benefit of a few multinationals and the detriment of artisanal fishermen, marine ecosystems and public interest.
These two explosive investigations show that the destruction of the ocean is not inevitable: it is organised, publicly funded and enabled by political complicity with a handful of predatory corporations, implicated in numerous cases of corruption, illegal fishing, tax evasion and marine pollution.
UK marine protected areas suffer over 20,000 hours of suspected bottom trawling.
Greenpeace demands greater ocean protection after nearly 2,000km of fishing line was dragged through Sargasso Sea last year.
Campaigners respond to government’s new measures to protect land and sea.
Exposed: UK government permits destructive trawling in marine protected areas.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Weekly ethical news, offers, comps and a free digital mag (quarterly) – what’s not to love?
