Greenpeace UK

THIS is what ocean protection looks like 💚 Southern North Sea Ocean Park is officially open!

We’ve just placed giant boulders on the seabed to create a new Ocean Park completely off limits to destructive bottom trawlers.

Imagine the outrage if a bulldozer was tearing through our National Parks on land, destroying habitats and decimating wildlife. That’s exactly what is happening everyday in our supposedly protected areas at sea.

Across all of the UK’s Marine Protected Areas, bottom trawlers and dredgers tore through 55,600 km² of seabed in 2025 - an area 58 times the size of Dartmoor National Park.

This MPA was created to protect harbour porpoises, where nearly 20% of the North Sea population live. . But the big weighted nets of a bottom trawler are scraping along the seafloor destroying their habitat, stripping the ocean of the fish they eat and killing them in their nets.

This area was protected in name only - until now.

But we can’t create Ocean Parks across the whole of the ocean, we need the government to step up and fulfill its promise to create ACTUAL Marine Protected Areas.

Take 20 seconds to sign the petition to demand the government bans destructive fishing in our marine protected areas to allow wildlife a chance to thrive. Click link in bio @greenpeaceuk to add your name ✍️🐬