Environmental group Greenpeace has created a boulder barrier in the North Sea to protect a conservation zone from 'destructive fishing'.
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Environmental NGO Greenpeace has taken the protection of ocean conservation zone Dogger Bank into its own hands.
Greenpeace is dropping giant granite rocks into the North Sea around the area to create a boulder barrier, thus preventing illegal fishing to take place.
While fishing is legal in Dogger Bank, Greenpeace is aware of trawling occurring in the protected zone, a practice that is ecologically destructive.
The ‘boulder barrier’ 30 miles off the Sussex coast will pose no threat to sea life but will stop trawlers from being able to operate in the area, according to Greenpeace.
The environmental activists say they have caught trawler vessels hiding their destructive intentions by switching off their identification systems – an illegal practice.
In fact, they estimate that destructive industrial fishing ships spent 3,099 hours trawling in the area in 2019.
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‘This must stop’
The NGO has received some backlash from the fishing industry, describing its actions as ‘dangerous and irresponsible’, but Greenpeace sternly defended their actions.
“Our Government has utterly failed to protect the Dogger Bank and all our marine protected areas from destructive industrial fishing,” explained Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Chris Thorne.
“How can you continue to allow trawlers to plough the seabed in a protected area designed specifically to protect the seabed?
“Allowing trawling is equivalent to allowing bulldozers to plough through a protected forest. This must stop.”
Trawler nets can measure a mile long, with the biggest capable of holding 13 jumbo jets. This method of fishing is completely incompatible with healthy oceans, let alone with protected zones. And, as Greenpeace says, it needs to stop.
Think farmed fish is more sustainable?
Read our article on Overfishing: Why aquaculture isn’t the solution.
Photo credit: Greenpeace
