Conservationists are preparing to throw boulders into waters off the Cornish coast to protect rare seafloor habitats from bottom trawlers.
Greenpeace UK wants to build a barrier in the South West Deeps, a designated marine reserve 200 miles from the Land’s End peninsula.
Despite being recognized as a site of special ecological importance, MPAs do not automatically receive any additional legal protection against fishing.
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Conservationists want trawling banned in protected areas because it indiscriminately destroys fragile ecosystems such as seagrass for species such as cod, squid and flounder.
Greenpeace announced Monday that its Arctic Sunrise ship will sail southwest in the coming weeks to begin throwing boulders in the deep southwest.
It will be the third underwater barrier Greenpeace has built in UK waters, having previously dropped granite into the North Sea’s Dog Beach and Brighton Offshore Marine Reserves.
The UK government agency Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has taken Greenpeace to court for breaching environmental regulations after the boulders at Dogger Bank fell.
But the case was dropped in February after a Newcastle Crown Court judge invited the MMO to reconsider, saying the prosecution was not in the public interest.
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Judge Edward Bindloss commented: “One of the ironies of this lawsuit is that both MMOs and Greenpeace are committed to improving the marine environment.”
He added: “In this case, the parties should be allies, not adversaries. Given that their stated aims and objectives are the same, they should act in harmony.”
In April, Environment Secretary George Eustice announced that bottom trawling would be banned in four of Britain’s 76 protected areas, including Dogger Bank, and a further 13 protected areas were considering bans.
A Greenpeace spokeswoman said it was pushing for further boulder declines as it was the only government response after years of discussions and consultations on marine protection.
According to the charity, the Deep South West is one of the UK’s most heavily fished marine reserves.
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Greenpeace said satellite data showed 110 boats had fished for nearly 19,000 hours between January 2021 and mid-July 2022.
During the same period, bottom trawlers fished there for more than 3,370 hours, it said.
It found that 53% of industrial fishing vessels in the deep southwest were from France, followed by Spain and 30%, with just 9% from the UK.
Pat Venditti, executive director of Greenpeace UK, described the obstacles as a “last resort”.
biodiversity
“The future of the UK’s oceans hangs in the balance and we don’t have time to save them from industrial fishing, habitat destruction and climate change,” Mr Venditi said.
He added: “The next prime minister should show that they are serious about protecting nature and supporting fishing communities by adjusting commercial fishing licences to ban industrial fishing in marine protected areas.”
Greenpeace’s announcement coincides with the first day of negotiations on the UN’s global ocean treaty, which aims to agree on a legal framework to protect international waters.
Without a treaty finalized this year, it will be impossible to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030, a goal agreed by more than 100 countries at the Cop15 biodiversity summit, Greenpeace said.
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Tess de la Mare is a reporter for PA.
