Campaigners in south London are winning support for a campaign to outlaw destructive fishing practices in the UK's protected coastal areas.
Greenpeace activists in Croydon, Kingston and Richmond took to the streets of their respective boroughs in recent days, chatting with passersby on the degradation of the UK's coastal waters by practices like the use of super trawlers, bottom trawlers and fly shooters in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
During the outreach, campaigners said a number of people signed the wider Greenpeace petition that calls on the government to end those destructive fishing practices in UK.
Campaigners in Croydon encouraged people who stopped at their stall to make small origami fish and include messages to the government to accompany their signatures on the petition.
"The seas are so precious, one of our earths most important living systems. We need the UK Government to ACT and start actually protecting Marine Protected Areas so it is not just a name on a piece of paper," one street-side supporter named Rosemary, aged 65, said.
Rosie, aged 10, also wrote a message to to the government on destructive fishing: "Please protect the sea from these horrible monster ships. They catch and kill everything," her origami fish read.
The most recent actions happened in Kingston and Richmond, where campaigners mirrored those of their colleagues in Croydon.
MJ from Richmond described their efforts: "On Sunday (August 29), we spoke to more than 100 local people who are on board with the need for the UK Government to ban destructive fishing from UK Marine Protected Areas. We also heard lots of stories of people’s memories of the seaside and how a ban would revive hard hit coastal communities."
Today the government’s @The_MMO begins prosecuting Greenpeace, for placing boulders on the seabed to protect a Marine Protected Area from destructive fishing.
— Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) August 31, 2021
Rather than doing their job to protect UK seas, they’re wasting money attacking Greenpeace. pic.twitter.com/g1cCzrIC3C
According to Greenpeace, super trawler operations in the UK’s protected areas rose significantly every year between 2017 and 2019. In 2017, super trawlers spent just 475 hours (20 days) fishing in UK protected areas. In 2019, super trawlers spent 2,963 hours (123 days) fishing in UK protected areas.
One YouGov poll showed that four out of five people in the UK (80 per cent) want super trawlers banned from protected waters, and ladst year 84 MPs from across Parliament, and 29 Conservative MPs, wrote to the Secretary of State for the Environment, George Eustice, calling for a super trawler ban in protected waters.
Prime Minister previously hinted at banning what he called "huge hoover trawlers" in one interview but has yet to follow through on that suggestion.
"No more excuses, it’s time to get ocean protection done. As an island nation, we know how important our oceans are for local fishers, tourism and tackling climate change," MJ said. "To truly be the world leader in marine protection that it claims to be, the Government needs to ban supertrawlers, fly shooters and bottom trawlers from MPAs now."
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