SOUTHERN NORTH SEA — Greenpeace activists dropped a barrier of two-tonne boulders onto the seabed off the Suffolk coast on November 1 to block bottom trawlers from entering a Marine Protected Area designated for harbour porpoises, the organisation said.
The boulder barrier closes off 116 square kilometres of the Southern North Sea Marine Protected Area, which Greenpeace says is the most heavily bottom-trawled offshore MPA in the UK. Data from the campaign group shows bottom trawlers spent more than 37,200 hours fishing in the area in 2025.
The event coincided with the BBC premiere of Blue Planet III. Celebrities Simon Pegg and Benedict Cumberbatch added their names to some of the boulders, which bear messages urging proper protection for UK offshore Marine Protected Areas.
Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the action was necessary because industrialised fishing is having a hugely destructive impact. "Out of sight, destruction on that scale is happening near our own shores in places we’re told are ‘Marine Protected Areas’," McCallum said, comparing the effect to a bulldozer tearing through a national park.
Kerry McCarthy, former climate minister and MP, also added her name to a boulder. "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.
Greenpeace has declared the area an "Ocean Park" and plans to patrol it with its ship, the Arctic Sunrise. The organisation stated the boulder barrier is a peaceful last resort after years of lobbying for better ocean protection from government have failed to stop destructive fishing in designated protected zones.
