Greenpeace UK has announced imminent plans to build an underwater boulder barrier in a third UK Marine Protected Area (MPA) to block destructive industrial fishing, with the action supported by celebrities Stephen Fry, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Simon Pegg and Daniel Lismore.
In the coming weeks, the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise will be sailing to the South West Deeps (East), an MPA almost 200km off the Cornish coast, to make a portion of it off-limits to bottom-trawling.
Fry, Fearnley-Whittingstall, Pegg and Lismore will have their names will be stencilled onto the boulders before they are placed on the seabed.
According to Greenpeace, the South West Deeps is one of the most heavily fished MPAs in the UK. The campaign group said that between 1 January 2021 and 15 July 2022, the South West Deeps was fished in for nearly 19,000 hours by 110 boats, and that during the same period, bottom-trawlers spent more than 3,370 hours fishing in the area.
It also highlighted that the majority of industrial fishing vessels in the South West Deeps are from France (53%), followed by Spain (30%) and Great Britain (9%).
Greenpeace UK’s Executive Director Pat Venditti said, “This is a last resort to save the UK’s marine life; we would prefer that the government did their job of protecting the oceans properly. But we’re taking matters into our own hands for the third year in a row because the government is still failing to stop destructive fishing from decimating marine life in our so-called Marine Protected Areas.
“Bottom-trawlers wipe out miles upon miles of the UK’s marine ecosystems every single day, but the government has only banned it in a measly four out of 76 offshore Marine Protected Areas. This is just a drop in the ocean – it’s like locking your front door but leaving all your windows wide open.”
Venditti added that the next UK prime minister should ban industrial fishing in MPAs by tweaking commercial fishing licences, “to show they mean business on protecting nature and supporting fishing communities”.
Actor Pegg said, “I am adding my name to one of Greenpeace’s boulders because I stand in solidarity with the UK’s small independent fishermen. The government promised that Brexit would be a turning point for fishing in the UK, but now that it has happened, this has turned out to be nothing but empty words. Massive industrial fishing vessels are catching everything in our seas, leaving our fishermen with nothing and making their jobs untenable.
“Properly protecting our Marine Protected Areas won’t only help wildlife recover, it will also help our local fishermen recover their livelihoods and bolster our coastal communities. It’s a no-brainer. So why is the government going back on their promise?”
Fabric sculptor, designer and campaigner Lismore said: “If we carry on industrially fishing like this, there will be no fish left in the UK’s oceans, and we and the planet will be in trouble. I am proud to support Greenpeace’s necessary boulder action, and I want the government to sit up, take note and act to protect our oceans from destructive industrial fishing - like they said they would.”
UK government banned bottom-trawling in four MPAs following Greenpeace’s previous boulder actions and is consulting on bans in a further 13 MPAs. But Greenpeace said “this glacially slow pace” will not deliver on the promise to see 30% of the world’s oceans protected by 2030 (30x30) – a target which the UK government has committed to reaching.
Greenpeace is calling on the government to match its rhetoric by banning bottom-trawling in every UK MPA using fishing licensing restrictions and fulfil its 30x30 commitments.
Greenpeace UK’s Cornish barrier announcement coincided with the first day of the UN’s Global Ocean Treaty negotiations at IGC5 in New York (15 August).
