In an effort to forestall "damaging" industrial fishing off the UK coast, Greenpeace dropped 18 giant boulders onto the seabed final week.
The enormous rocks had been dropped on Thursday from the Arctic Dawn analysis vessel in an space of the Channel known as the South West Deeps (East) Conservation Zone. This Marine Protected Space (MPA) is round 190 kilometres off Land's Finish, probably the most westerly level of mainland England.
The Portland limestone boulders, every weighing between 500 and 1,400 kilograms, are meant to make it unattainable for trawlers to tug their nets alongside the seabed.
"Proper now, there's an industrial fishing frenzy taking place in UK waters, and what's our authorities doing about it?" asks Greenpeace UK's head of oceans, Will McCallum.
Why is bottom-trawling unhealthy?
MPAs, or marine conservation zones, are protected areas that act as sanctuaries for nationally essential, uncommon or threatened species.
Greenpeace UK says it's "absurd" that bottom-trawling is authorized in MPAs.
"MPAs are purported to be the areas the place fish shares can get better, in order that we fish for generations to come back,” says McCallum.
"[Bottom trawlers] destroy big swathes of the marine ecosystem and make a mockery of our so-called 'safety'," he provides.
In response to Greenpeace, the 4,600-square-kilometre South West Deeps is "one of the closely fished so-called Marine Protected Areas within the UK".
Figures from the International Fishing Watch monitoring company point out that 110 vessels - greater than half of them from France - fished for 18,928 hours within the South West Deeps within the 18 months as much as July.
Of that, industrial vessels with bottom-towed fishing gear spent 3,376 hours fishing within the zone. That’s the equal of over 20 weeks of continuous trawling.
Neil Whitney, a fisherman from East Sussex in southern England, says bottom-trawling is "like ploughing a mix harvester by a nationwide park".
"[Bottom-trawlers are] in a position to take out total ecosystems, and in the event that they trigger a fishery to break down, they only transfer on to the following one," he provides.
In addition to the threat to sea creatures, backside trawling additionally disturbs and releases the carbon saved within the seabed.
Will the boulders trigger harm to the seabed?
This isn’t the primary time Greenpeace has taken this motion. And there’s no proof to counsel the inserting of the boulders negatively impacts the sealife.
Within the UK, boulders had been positioned within the Dogger Financial institution MPA in 2020 and the Offshore Brighton MPA in 2021.
It’s confirmed to be a profitable tactic as these actions contributed to backside trawling tools being banned in 4 of the UK’s 76 offshore MPAs, together with the Dogger Financial institution.
Although that is progress, in accordance with McCallum it’s nonetheless "outrageous" that bottom-trawlers are allowed to function on the seabed in protected areas.
Messages of hope and the names of supporters, together with celebrities and politicians, had been stencilled onto the boulders earlier than they had been dropped into the ocean.
Impressed by the fossils typically present in Portland limestone, artists additionally created a large ammonite sculpture from one of many boulders, which was additionally positioned on the seabed.
The motion comes after the newest spherical of UN talks to guard marine life in worldwide waters broke up with out settlement.
Watch the video above to study extra about Greenpeace’s marketing campaign.
Post a Comment