Greenpeace Boulder Dropping

By Theodora T

Greenpeace has been dropping boulders in the ocean to help stop destructive fishing. They have built an underwater barrier with the help of their ship the Esperanza to help protect the sea creatures here.

Destructive fishing is bad because often they use a method called bottom trawling, this is when nets (that could be as big as football pitches and as tall as three storey buildings) are dragged along the ocean floor, catching any and all sea creatures that are in its path. It also destroys the ecosystems and rips up coral. They scoop up hundreds of tons worth of fish each day and can also accidentally catch animals such as sea turtles, sting rays and crabs. Fish are often thrown back into the sea dead or on the verge of dying.

Industrial fishing like this is completely different to local and sustainable fishing. Local fishermen don’t harm the wildlife and fish for a small amount of a range of species. However, industrial fishing disrupts wildlife because it aims for as many of one or two species as possible, which drastically reduces the fish stocks. Sustainable fishing is getting harder and harder because the industrial fishing industry is removing most of the fish, leaving none for the local fishermen.

The areas that Greenpeace has been trying to protect from the trawlers are actually meant to be marine protected areas. This means that the government has said that they will protect the ecosystems and marine life in these areas but are clearly failing to do so. They have said multiple times that Brexit would help us to do more to protect marine life but still nothing has been done.

Greenpeace has used this method before and it has worked. In 2008, they built a boulder barrier off the coast of Germany and it has greatly benefited the wildlife.

The actions that they have been taking are completely legal and they have contacted the relevant maritime authorities of the boulders exact location so that maps can be updated and the only things that will be affected are the bottom trawlers and their other fishing gear.