By Natalia Rueda 
Patagonia, the outdoor apparel company, has launched an ambitious global environmental campaign focused on ocean protection and restoration that aims to end all bottom trawling. Through a series of films, a website, a petition, and events across Europe, Patagonia is mobilizing individuals and calling on governments to take immediate action to protect ocean habitats and combat climate change.
Bottom trawling is one of the most detrimental practices inflicted on the ocean that destroys seabed ecosystems, fuel and produces four times more emissions than other types of fishing, and indiscriminately kills everything from turtles and rays to sharks. As the oceans absorb a quarter of all the carbon dioxide that we produce, bottom trawling is particularly destructive in that it undermines marine plants and creatures that take in carbon from the atmosphere.
Patagonia has partnered with NGOs Bloom, Blue Ventures, Client Earth, Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana, and Seas At Risk to make this global campaign possible. Through a series of eight short documentary films, Patagonia is telling the stories of people around the world and showing how we can work with the ocean, instead of against it. Some of the stories have been captured in places as diverse as South Korea, Chilean Patagonia, Portugal and Wales, and they revolve around topics such as building community-owned regenerative ocean farms, restoring sea-grass meadows, and reclaiming natural coastlines.
The campaign also comes at a crucial moment in Europe, as biodiversity crisis escalates and the EU debate the Nature Restoration Law and the Ocean Action Plan. Patagonia is offering small-scale fishers impacted by bottom trawling a platform and is calling for them to be supported in the necessary transition.
At Patagonia, we have recognized the need to balance the relationship between business and ecology, said Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder. We want to show that we can look after the world’s oceans without trashing them. It’s about doing what’s right for our future and the future of our planet.
The ocean protection fight requires us to think bigger and act faster, and Patagonia’s global campaign is an important step in that direction. We must all work together, individuals and governments, to protect our oceans and the incredible life they sustain, so they can protect us in turn.