Environmental campaigners say the boulders will make it unimaginable for fishing gear to be dragged alongside the seabed.
Greenpeace UK has dropped 18 giant boulders on the seabed in a marine conservation zone off the coast of southwest England to stop “harmful” industrial fishing.
The environmental campaigners sailed to the western a part of the English Channel between the UK and France, loaded with the boulders of Portland limestone, every weighing between 500 and 1,400kg (1,100 and three,100 kilos).
The large rocks have been dropped on Thursday from its Arctic Dawn analysis vessel in an space of the South West Deeps (East) Conservation Zone, which lies about 190 kilometres (120 miles) off Land’s Finish, essentially the most westerly level of mainland England.
Greenpeace mentioned on Friday that the boulders will make it unimaginable for bottom-towed fishing gear to be dragged alongside the seabed and devastate marine life there.
Artists created an enormous ammonite sculpture – impressed by the fossil typically present in Portland limestone – out of one of many boulders, which was additionally positioned on the seabed.
“Proper now, there’s an industrial fishing frenzy occurring in UK waters, and what’s our authorities doing about it?” requested Greenpeace UK’s head of oceans, Will McCallum.
“Greenpeace UK has created this underwater boulder barrier as a final resort to guard the oceans. We’d a lot quite the federal government simply did their job.”
McCallum mentioned it was “outrageous” that bottom-trawlers are allowed to function on the seabed in protected areas.
“They destroy big swathes of the marine ecosystem and make a mockery of our so-called ‘safety’,” he added.
The motion comes after the newest spherical of UN talks to attempt to safe safety for marine life in worldwide waters broke up with out an settlement.
Greenpeace mentioned the 4,600-square-kilometre (1,776-square-mile) South West Deeps is “one of the vital closely fished so-called Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within the UK”.
It cited figures from the World Fishing Watch monitoring company that mentioned that 110 vessels – greater than half of them from France – fished for 18,928 hours within the space within the 18 months to July.
Of that, industrial vessels with bottom-towed fishing gear spent 3,376 hours fishing within the zone.
Neil Whitney, a fisherman from East Sussex in southern England, mentioned bottom-trawling was “like ploughing a mix harvester by way of a nationwide park”.
“They’re capable of take out complete ecosystems, and in the event that they trigger a fishery to break down, they only transfer on to the subsequent one,” he added.
“Industrial fishing, like fly-shooters [vessels which tow lead-weighted ropes along the seabed] and super-trawlers [trawlers more than 100 metres long or 328 feet], are killing our marine setting, and small-scale UK fishermen like me are dropping out huge time,” Whitney mentioned.
He mentioned it was “absurd” that bottom-trawling was authorized in MPAs.
“MPAs are speculated to be the areas the place fish shares can get well in order that we fish for generations to come back. It’s a case of widespread sense,” Whitney added.
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