Brighton Greenpeace activists demand full ban on fishing trawlers from protected areas

Greenpeace campaigners are building an underwater boulder barrier in the Offshore Brighton marine protected area to prevent bottom trawler fishing, in which large nets are dragged along the seabed.

Activists on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza have dropped several boulders to close off nearly 55 square nautical miles – one fifth of its total area – from bottom trawling.

READ MORE: Greenpeace's new 'boulder barrier' in Offshore Brighton area

Greenpeace volunteer Jamie Smith, who lives in Seven Dials, is among the campaigners who took to the beach this morning to show their support for the boulder barrier.

He said: "I’m really shocked and disappointed to discover that although the government has closed some protected areas to industrial fishing, the Offshore Brighton marine protected area can still be legally exploited by destructive industrial fishing boats.

Greenpeace activist Jamie Smith

"That’s why volunteers from Brighton’s local Greenpeace group have been out on the beach, in a socially distanced manner, calling for bottom trawlers to be banned from fishing in all of the UK’s marine protected areas.

"Bottom trawlers spent 3,099 hours fishing in the Offshore Brighton area in 2019.

"Offshore Brighton was established in 2016 to protect its seabed habitat, which is being destroyed by bottom trawling.

READ MORE: Sussex dolphin deaths linked to 'surge in super trawlers'

"But according to the government, Offshore Brighton is 'unlikely to be moving towards conservation objectives'."

Greenpeace previously created a boulder barrier in the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, and the government has since announced new bylaws which would totally close the Dogger Bank and South Dorset protected areas to bottom trawling.

But campaigners say this still leaves 97 per cent of offshore protected areas, fully or partially open to "destructive" bottom trawling.

Super trawler photo by Mike Pennington

Chris Thorne, an oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK on board the Esperanza said: "The government’s move to properly protect just two of the UK’s protected areas barely touches the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is needed to save our oceans.

"All of the UK’s protected areas need real protection, not just a handful.

"The government must show more ambition in a year when it is supposed to display global leadership on solving the climate and nature emergencies.

SEE ALSO: Shock as huge, rare sea creature washes up on beach

"It must urgently ban destructive industrial fishing from all of the UK’s protected areas at sea by restricting fishing vessel licenses."

Celebrities who support the campaign have added their names to the boulders, including Thandie Newton, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Paloma Faith, Bella Ramsey, Mark Rylance, Jarvis Cocker and Ranulph Fiennes.