Greenpeace Drops Boulders in North Sea to Block Industrial Trawlers in Protected Waters

Greenpeace activists have dropped boulders into the North Sea in an attempt to snag the dragnets of industrial trawlers operating inside a marine protected area off the east coast of England.

Campaigners aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise lowered the giant stones to form an underwater barrier around the Southern North Sea marine protected area, described as the UK's most bottom-trawled MPA.

The Southern North Sea is an important area for harbour porpoises, supporting nearly 20% of the UK North Sea population. Yet despite its protected status, fishing faces no restrictions across most of it, and bottom trawlers, dredgers and other industrial vessels scour it daily. Bottom trawlers logged more than 37,200 fishing hours in the protected zone in 2025, an activity Greenpeace UK likened to "a bulldozer tearing through a treasured national park".

"Hulking great ships prowl the sea day after day, stripping it of fish and killing precious wildlife like porpoises, sharks and sea birds," said Will McCallum, the campaign organisation's co-executive director. "With our ship and a movement behind us, we're doing what the government isn't: protecting our seas."

According to Greenpeace UK, the so-called boulder barrier has effectively closed 116 sq km, about 45 sq miles, of the Southern North Sea MPA to bottom trawling. Over the coming days, the Arctic Sunrise will patrol the area to deter other forms of industrial fishing. The activists have declared the zone an "ocean park", in the spirit of Britain's national parks.

The Southern North Sea MPA runs from north of Dogger Bank down to the strait of Dover. It is intended to protect porpoise populations partly by ensuring the "availability of prey is maintained", a goal Greenpeace UK's activists say is contradicted by intensive fishing in the area. "We announced in June that if the government didn't act soon, Greenpeace UK would take direct action," McCallum said.

The action coincided with the nationwide premiere of Blue Planet III, the latest BBC wildlife documentary narrated by David Attenborough, which focuses on the oceans and the human-made threats they face. A Greenpeace analysis found that in 2025 bottom trawlers and dredgers tore through a cumulative 55,600 sq km of MPA seabeds, an area 58 times the size of Dartmoor national park.

A number of notable figures added their names to boulders tipped from the Arctic Sunrise into the sea. Among them was Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, a former climate minister and a member of the all-party parliamentary group for the ocean. "Industrialised fishing is having a hugely destructive impact on our marine environment, yet less than 1% of our seas are protected from it," she said.

McCarthy added that fishing boats can legally tear through supposedly protected areas, "wreaking havoc upon the seabed, precious habitats and the sea life that lives there". She said: "Progress is too slow and nature can't wait, which is why I've added my name to one of Greenpeace UK's boulders. We need a ban on bottom trawling and properly protected ocean sanctuaries, both here in UK waters and right across the Atlantic Ocean."

The government has been contacted for comment.