Celebrities give backing to group’s underwater ‘boulder barrier’

GREENPEACE campaigners have built an underwater ‘boulder barrier’ to stop damaging fishing in a protected area of the English Channel.

Activists have dropped a series of boulders from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza in the Offshore Brighton marine protected area to close off nearly 55 square nautical miles of the sea from bottom trawling.

The environmental group says this method of fishing, in which heavy weighted nets are dragged over the seabed to catch fish, is ploughing up the sensitive habitat for which the area is protected.

The gravel and rock seabed of the conservation zone 28 miles south of Selsey Bill, West Sussex, is home to wildlife including starfish, hermit crabs and anemones and is a rich hunting ground for skates, rays and other fish.

Celebrities including

Thandie

Newton, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Paloma Faith, Bella Ramsey, Mark Rylance, Jarvis Cocker and Ranulph Fiennes have signed their names to boulders dropped into the sea.

The Government has proposed new bylaws to fully close two other protected areas to bottom trawling, and partially close another two sites.

Greenpeace said the move showed some political will to protect British waters, but warned that 74 out of the 76 offshore marine protected areas were still open or partially open to destructive fishing.

West-based campaigner Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said he was proud to put his name on one of the boulders.

He added: “This action will play a small but significant role – and far more than our Government has so far done.”

> Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall says he is proud to put his name on one of the boulders