2025 was the year in which the terms ‘nurdle’ and ‘bio-bead’ became headline news, with devastating implications for marine life. These low points were matched by an outpouring of emotion and display of people power following the release of Sir David Attenborough’s film ‘Ocean’, which opened the nation’s eyes to the devastating impacts of bottom trawling. 

Duncan Hutt, Director of Conservation at Northumberland Wildlife Trust says:

“The year was bookended by environmental disasters - the North Sea tanker collision in March and in November the release of tonnes of bio-beads off the Sussex coast. 

“Despite the year’s challenges, we’ve had moments of joy and wonder, conservationists across the UK have celebrated successes such as the first signs of puffin breeding on the Isle of Muck and transplanted seagrass growing healthily off the Essex coast. They’ve also been flabbergasted by the incredible numbers of octopuses recorded this year.”

Throughout 2025, protection of UK seas made significant advances and came under scrutiny as never before and threats continued, including:

• Sir David Attenborough’s film ‘Ocean’ was a box office hit. It revealed the harsh reality of the industrialised fishing practice of bottom trawling the ocean floor.
• A survey by The Wildlife Trusts revealed that most people thought the practice was already banned in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
• The Government and Marine Management Organisation launched a long-awaited public consultation into whether the practice should be banned in 41 English offshore MPAs. 18,000 members of the public wrote to the Government expressing, often with great emotion, their support for a ban. We are still waiting for the outcome of the consultation.
• In a parliamentary debate on the High Seas treaty (16 October) MPs expressed their horror at the practice, backing an outright ban and saying that ‘large factory ships now plunder the ocean as if it were a bottomless pit of profit.’
• Scotland took a step forward in protecting MPAs. New fisheries management measures for some offshore MPAs came into force in October. These special areas were designated over a decade ago to conserve and recover vulnerable marine habitats and species in deep and continental shelf seas. They will now benefit from restrictions on bottom trawling, longlines and bottom set gillnets in certain areas.
• Nearly five years since a landmark ban on inshore bottom trawling off the coast of Sussex, local divers reported more than 100 football pitches-worth of mussel beds growing on the seabed. Fishermen reported increases in sea bream.  
• Sussex Wildlife Trust took legal action to protect an MPA off Beachy Head. They won. The MMO reversed a decision to allow the dumping of dredged sediment into the seas above an area famed for its chalk reef, home to short-snouted seahorses.

And finally, in 2026, the Wildlife Trusts predict:

• More octopus, less cod and haddock. The World Meteorological Organisation predicts that global temperatures are expected to continue at or near record levels in the next five years - leading to the heating of the ocean and rising sea levels. Winter temperatures are remaining very high year on year. The implications are wide-reaching.

Octopus eggs are surviving warmer winters, so the UK is likely to see a regular occurrence of octopus blooms in future years, which fisheries need to adapt to, as octopuses eat lobsters, crabs and shellfish. 

Non-native invasive species like Pacific oysters and climate change indicator species, currently at the northern limit of their historic range, also prefer warm seas so are likely to continue to spread. This spread will impact our native habitats and species.