Environmentalists build boulder barrier to stop harmful fishing

Environmental campaigners have begun dropping granite boulders into a protected area of the North Sea to stop destructive fishing.

Greenpeace said that the inert boulders, which they were spacing at precise intervals inside the Dogger Bank protected area, would not have a significant impact on the seabed but would stop destructive bottom trawling.

This fishing method, in which heavy weighted nets are dragged across the sea floor to catch fish, is destroying the seabed that the protected area designation for Dogger Bank is designed to conserve, Greenpeace warned.

Any bottom trawlers trying to fish over the boulders will get their gear snagged and ruined on the rocks, though passing marine traffic will not be affected.

The shallow sandbank habitat is home to crabs, starfish, flatfish and sandeels which are food for seabirds such as puffins, as well as for porpoises and dolphins.

Environmentalists accuse the government of failing to properly protect the area, despite its designation as a Special Area of Conservation, by not fully restricting damaging fishing activity.

A spokesperson for the environment department said the government was putting sustainable fishing and protection of the seas at the heart of its future fishing strategy.

They said: “We have already set up a ‘blue belt’ of protected waters nearly twice the size of England, and the Fisheries Bill proposes new powers to better manage and control our marine protected areas and English waters.”