Activists create 'boulder barrier' in North Sea to deter industrial fishing

Greenpeace has placed large boulders on the seabed in the Southern North Sea marine protected area, creating what it calls a “boulder barrier” to obstruct bottom-trawling nets. The group says the stones effectively close 116 sq km to bottom trawling and has named the zone an “ocean park”; its vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, will patrol the area to discourage other industrial fishing. The protected area stretches along England’s east coast and is important habitat for harbour porpoises, supporting nearly one-fifth of the UK North Sea population. Yet most of it has no fishing restrictions, and bottom trawlers recorded more than 37,200 hours there in 2025.

Greenpeace argues that ongoing industrial fishing undermines the area’s purpose of protecting porpoises and maintaining their food supply, while damaging seabeds and harming wildlife including sharks and seabirds. The action follows the group’s June warning that it would intervene if the government did not act. Greenpeace also reports that bottom trawlers and dredgers disturbed a total of 55,600 sq km of marine protected-area seabed in 2025. Supporters, including former climate minister Kerry McCarthy, say the government should ban bottom trawling in protected waters and establish genuinely protected ocean sanctuaries; they argue that less than 1% of UK seas are currently protected from this fishing method.