Action update from Richard, one of our oceans campaigners
Yesterday we began work to stop trawl fishing in two sensitive marine areas in Sweden, called the Lilla Middelgrund and Fladen. Given that the Swedish government and the European Union has written laws on paper that protect these two sites since 2003, you might think that measures have been put in place to stop fishing and other damaging activities, but this is not the case.
Check out the video on BBC news
Using a specially equipped barge, our team is carefully placing a number of large boulders on the seafloor to create obstacles and thus stop fishermen from ploughing up the strangely named, but wonderful, sensitive and rare habitats of maerl bottoms and bubble reefs. Bottom trawling is a highly destructive type of fishing. Fishermen drag a net across the seabed, which indiscriminately catches everything in its path. This decimates stocks of popular fish, such as sole and plaice, and results in a large amount of unwanted bycatch – which is thrown back into the sea either dead or dying. In fact, most European countries have done little to protect the sites they have designated by law. This situation is clearly ludicrous. Libraries full of scientific evidence points to the need for fully-protected marine reserves - areas where all extractive use including fishing is prohibited - to ensure real protection of marine ecosystems.
For this reason it is not the first time we have used stones as fishing obstacles inside a protected area.
Almost exactly a year ago we strategically positioned 320 boulders in the Sylt Outer Reef, another Natura 2000 site but this time situated within German waters. The great news is that trawlers have been avoiding the area and the boulders have become part of the natural environment and are being colonized by a rich community of marine plants and creatures. A team of Greenpeace divers has just come back with beautiful pictures of the boulders covered with brittle stars and anemones. [insert link or photo]
By the way, it takes more than just showing up with some large stones! Our team in Sweden has planned and prepared this work for months. An important step was the preparation of an environmental impact assessment to determine whether the activity will adversely effect the environment or not. The team had also invited anyone interested - fishermen, politicians and all - to comment on our plans to place these stones. The conclusion of the impact assessment was that placing the stones would not negatively impact the marine environment, and the responsible authority shared this view and told us that we would not need a permit to place the stones. Fishermen from Varberg, which is nearby, also recognized the importance of our proposal. As one fisherman said: “We shall and we must protect the shallow banks and the refuges that exist there. Then perhaps we can even get the wolffish back.”
It also takes more than the stones to ensure the long-term protection of these and other sites, so join us in asking the Swedish government to put in place a permanent fishing ban in the Fladen and Lilla Middelgrund. At the same time, Sweden should work with its neighbours in Europe to change fisheries rules in the European Union, so it becomes easier to protect sensitive sea areas from the impacts of fishing.
