In Scotland, fishing trawlers scrape the seabed despite protection promises

KYLEAKIN, Scotland (AP) — Bally Philp hauls up his baited traps from the waters off Scotland’s Isle of Skye, checking each one methodically. Unlike most of Scotland’s coastline, these waters are protected from industrial fishing methods that have devastated seabeds elsewhere. But Philp, who’s fished for more than three decades, has watched conditions deteriorate nearly everywhere else along the coast.

“The inshore archipelagos on the West Coast of Scotland used to be full of fish,” Philp said. “We have no commercial quantities of fish left inshore at all.”

While 37% of Scotland’s waters have been designated as marine protected areas, only a small fraction have management measures in place to enforce that protection, according to environmental groups. Bottom trawling and scallop dredging — methods that rake the seabed — are permitted in about 95% of Scotland’s coastal waters, including within designated protected areas, according to marine conservation groups.

Bottom trawls drag heavy nets across the seafloor, crushing marine habitats. The method causes extensive carbon pollution: it burns nearly three times more fuel than other fishing methods, and the nets disturb seabed sediments, releasing stored carbon into the ocean. Bottom trawlers often discard a substantial portion of their catch back into the sea, and survival rates for discarded marine life are typically very low.

The problem isn't just in Scotland. Across Europe and globally, bottom trawling within protected areas remains common and often unregulated, with industrial vessels operating in waters officially set aside for conservation. A 2024 report from the Marine Conservation Society and Oceana found 90% of protected marine sites across seven European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Spain, experienced bottom trawling between 2015 and 2023, with vessels logging 4.4 million bottom trawling hours in protected waters.

In 1984, a longstanding 3‑mile (4.8-kilometer) ban on bottom trawling around much of Scotland’s coast was repealed. Fish landings in areas such as the Clyde plummeted, with catches of many species now only a tiny fraction of their historical levels.

Philp began his fishing career working on trawlers in the late 1980s. By then, fish had become bycatch — unwanted species caught accidentally that were often illegal to land under newly introduced quota systems. His job was to shovel them overboard, dead.

“You would see a stream of dead fish flowing off the back of the boat,” he said. “It’s a heartbreaking thing to see.”

He resolved instead to fish with baited traps — a method that causes minimal habitat damage and allows most unwanted catch to survive when returned to the sea.

But that choice has meant limiting himself to the shrinking number of areas where such fishing remains viable. Across much of the U.K., reefs have been heavily damaged or destroyed by scallop dredging. Loch Alsh, where Philp works, holds some of the most intact reefs remaining.

Philp, who comes from three generations of fishers, says he’ll be the last in his family to make a living in this industry. He taught his two sons, now 20 and 30, how to fish, but he’s discouraged them from making it a career.

“We’re at the arse end of something that was once really good,” Philp said. “Unless we can turn that around, why would anyone want their kids to do this?”

Philp isn’t alone in struggling to sustain traditional fishing practices. Scallop diver Alasdair Hughson spends four days a week at sea, traveling far from home in Dingwall and his two children, because nearby coastal areas have been too degraded to support his work, he said.

“If there was no need to increase the size of vessels and move about and become more nomadic, we would have just stayed the way we were, because why wouldn’t you?” he said.

By the time he started diving, stocks had declined. “It wasn’t regenerating because scallop dredging had altered the habitat to such an extent.”

A 2023 Marine Conservation Society analysis found that banning bottom trawling in U.K. offshore protected areas could deliver a net benefit of up to 3.5 billion pounds ($4.7 billion) over 20 years, accounting for increased carbon storage, pollution removal, nutrient cycling and recreation opportunities.

Marine biologist Caitlin Turner said the habitat destruction creates cascading effects throughout the ecosystem.

“If you degrade the habitat, then there’s less places for juvenile fish to live and spawn in,” she said. “This affects the abundance of the animals in the area. It trickles upward — you’ll have less of the bigger animals that feed on the prey animals.”

The damage could affect Scotland’s tourism industry, Turner said. Visitors to destinations like the Isle of Skye typically find fish and chips on menus that are imported. More than 80% of seafood eaten in the U.K. in 2019 was fished or farmed outside U.K. waters, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

“There is a huge demand from tourists and it is difficult to meet these demands,” said Miles Craven, executive chef at Wickman Hotels on the Isle of Skye. “I have noticed it get incrementally harder in the last eight years.”

The Scottish government had indicated it would launch a consultation on fisheries management measures for coastal protected areas in late 2025, but in December officials announced the consultation would be delayed at least six months.

Scientists and community groups are already in the field designing restoration approaches, including efforts to restore sea grass and oyster populations. But conservationists say this won’t be sufficient without reinstating a coastal limit that protects at least 30% of Scotland’s inshore seas — part of the international target to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030.

A Scottish government spokesperson said 13% of inshore protected areas are currently closed to certain types of bottom trawling and scallop dredging, and additional measures are expected in the coming years that will allow Scotland to exceed the 30% protection by the 2030 target. Officials cited upcoming parliamentary elections and late delivery by external contractors for the consultation delay.

“The more aware I become about the nuances of fisheries management and the marine ecosystems that we’re working in, the more despair I feel because I know we can get it right,” Philp said.

For Philp and other small-scale fishermen, the timeline means more years of waiting for marine protected areas that were designated a decade ago and still lack enforcement.

“I know we can fix this," he said. "I despair at the fact that we’re being so slow to fix this.”

M.K. Wildeman contributed reporting from Hartford, Connecticut. Hammerschlag reported from Seattle.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Small-scale creel fishermen operate in Loch Alsh next to the Isle of Skye on Nov. 20, 2025, in Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Seagulls fly near a creel fishing vessel in Loch Alsh off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland on Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Caitlin Turner, a marine biologist, poses for a portrait on Nov. 17, 2025, in Cramond Village, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Algae grows on the rocks of a tidal path connecting the mainland to Cramond Island on Nov. 17, 2025, in Cramond Village, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Creel fishing boats, tour boats and others dock at the harbor on Nov. 22, 2025, in Portree, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Extra shells from scallops are stored at Keltic Seafare on Nov. 21, 2025, in Dingwall, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Alasdair Hughson, owner of Keltic Seafare, a company that process sustainably caught prawns, lobsters and scallops, stands for a portrait on Nov. 21, 2025, in Dingwall, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Fisherman work on a boat in the North Sea on Jan. 5, 2026, in Fraserburgh, a fishing town in northeastern Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

A starfish is returned to the sea on Nov. 20, 2025, off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland. Any small amounts of bycatch are tossed back into the loch when caught by creel fisheries and the vast majority of it survives the process. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Bally Philp stores fresh-caught prawns on Nov. 20, 2025, off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland, which are later delivered to buyers alive. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Bally Philp and his crew member take the boat out to their creels on Nov. 20, 2025, in Loch Alsh off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

Bally Philp looks out at the loch for the buoy marking his creels on Nov. 20, 2025, in Loch Alsh off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

A crew member on Bally Philp's boat puts new bait into the creels before resetting them into the loch off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Emily Whitney)

CREIGHTON, Neb. (AP) — Rick and Jane Saint John chose to live in the small town of Creighton, Nebraska, for one main reason: its hospital.

The couple has a child with nonverbal autism and epilepsy who requires up to three hospital visits a week. And Creighton's critical access hospital has been a lifeline for Jane: not only is she employed there, but three years ago, doctors saved her life when she contracted bacterial pneumonia. If she had waited another day for care, doctors said, her organs would have begun to shut down.

“And if we had had to drive the hour to the Yankton (South Dakota) hospital," Rick Saint John said, his voice breaking with emotion, "it could have cost her her life.”

So the Saint Johns were shocked to hear that Avera Creighton Hospital faces financial peril. A $50 billion government fund meant to transform rural health care will do little to help. It's a problem that millions of Americans in rural areas are awakening to as they realize there's no windfall coming for the vulnerable hospitals near their homes.

Hundreds of rural hospitals across the country are facing closures after years of funding problems. The issue was compounded last summer by the Trump administration's massive cuts to Medicaid, the government's safety net for low-income Americans, whose reimbursements have long helped hospitals meet their bottom lines.

Outcry over the funding cuts prompted Republican lawmakers to create $50 billion in new rural health grants, but critics say that funding is intended for innovative health care delivery solutions — not propping up hospitals buckling under current pressures.

“It won’t pay to keep the lights on. And it won’t turn the lights back on once they’ve been turned off,” said Dr. Ben Young, an infectious disease specialist and policy expert with public health advocacy group Wellness Equity Alliance.

Rural Americans’ health care worries reflect broader national concerns about access and rising prices of care as the cost of living spikes — anxieties that could prove pivotal in this year’s midterm elections.

The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program included in President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending law last year was billed by Republicans as a way to help hospitals in rural areas. Last summer, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted it as the “biggest infusion in history” for rural hospitals and pledged it will “restore and revitalize these communities.”

Hospitals and health industry experts have warned that while the fund — $10 billion per year allocated across all states for five years — offers some support to struggling rural hospitals, it won’t save them. One reason is that the sum doesn't come close to offsetting the $137 billion that rural hospitals expect to lose over the next decade, according to health research nonprofit KFF. Millions of people are expected to lose Medicaid benefits as a result of new Medicaid work requirements going into effect in 2027 — changes the Trump administration has maintained will crack down on fraudsters rather than cut off eligible enrollees.

Administrators say the new $50 billion fund is not meant to shore up ailing rural hospitals or maintain the status quo, but to transform rural health care through tech, workforce and other innovations. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in a December video said it “gives states the tools to design solutions that last, not Band-Aids that fail.”

The White House echoed that Wednesday, saying the fund is intended to fund “big ideas” to improve rural health care access long-term.

“Decades of mismanagement by career politicians in Washington have left rural communities with limited care options," White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

State applications show a wide range of proposals. Some pitches sought to improve emergency medical services and modernize rural facilities, while others looked to make school lunches healthier, expand physical fitness programs, beef up telehealth and expand AI-driven technologies to help monitor patients.

Avera Creighton Hospital CEO Theresa Guenther argues her hospital is not in danger of closing. but conceded that Medicaid cuts will be painful — a sentiment shared by most rural hospitals, she said.

“Medicaid cuts will have an impact to us, and we — as well as many others — will have to figure out what that looks like moving forward,” she said. Her hospital hopes to get a piece of the $50 billion fund to help manage patients' chronic diseases — like diabetes — and to help cover workforce costs.

Nebraska, which received $218 million for the rural health grants' first installment, plans to spend some $90 million on healthier food options at schools, recruiting more health care workers and mobile sensors to remotely monitor chronically ill patients in rural areas, among other things. But for rural critical access hospitals at risk of closing, it offers $10 million to “right size” them by getting rid of inpatient care, where bed occupancy is typically low.

Republican state Sen. Barry DeKay said hospitals like Creighton's are vital, despite it's low occupancy rate. The hospital is in his district; even his mother received life-extending care there following a hip replacement. He's worried that the Medicaid cuts could hurt all the state's rural hospitals.

“I'll try to be working as hard as I can to get as much money to rural hospitals — whether it's in my district or any other rural district in the state,” he said.

Rick Saint John acknowledged he knows little about how Nebraska will use the federal funds, but he thinks it should go to helping hospitals like Creighton’s remain intact.

“The hospital is very important to this community, and for more than just medical care,” he said, citing job losses if the hospital loses services or closes.

The fund has seen pushback from hospital groups over an issue that's shaping up as important for 2026 voters.

The Colorado Hospital Association sent a letter in December to state lawmakers accusing them of ignoring input from rural hospitals during the application process.

The Nebraska Hospital Association, which endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer’s 2024 reelection bid based on her advocacy for rural health care, has criticized both the cuts and the $50 billion fund. Fischer voted last summer for the Medicaid cuts.

That and other efforts by the state to limit Medicaid spending sends a message “that access to health care is not a priority," the group said.

Some Republican state lawmakers across the country have expressed unease with parts of the fund and have sought ways to use it to help struggling rural hospitals.

Under pressure, some rural states are making their own moves to help.

Wyoming enacted a law allowing rural hospitals to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy, normally reserved for financially stressed cities to reorganize debts and repay creditors while protecting them from legal action.

In North Dakota, during a special session to allocate the state’s federal rural health funds, the Republican-led Legislature passed an unrelated bill that aims to rescue a rural hospital with a low-interest loan of up to $5 million administered through the state-owned bank.

It's hoped the plan will keep the hospital open in a vast rural area where it employs 5% of the surrounding county's residents, hospital board member Matt Hager said.

Young, the expert with Wellness Equity Alliance, sees dark days ahead for rural hospitals.

“I am not optimistic in the short term,” he said. “Because these hospitals are facing immediate financial shortfalls, are barely financially operating currently, and they need operating support now.”

Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jack Dura contributed to this report from Bismarck, North Dakota.

Avera Creighton Hospital CEO Theresa Guenther is seen in her office, Feb. 24, 2026, in Creighton, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Nebraska State Sen. Barry DeKay, R-Niobrara, is seen on the floor of the Nebraska State Capitol, Feb. 5, 2026, in Lincoln, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Jane and Rick Saint John hold hands on Feb. 24, 2026, as they recall how Jane received life-saving care three years ago at Avera Creighton Hospital, in rural Creighton, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Jane and Rick Saint John discuss how important their local hospital, Avera Creighton Hospital, is in their rural community, Feb. 24, 2026, in Creighton, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Avera Creighton Hospital is seen on Feb. 24, 2026, in Creighton, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)