Anchoring problem in Brighton
- Thread starter LONG_KEELER
- Start date
RupertW
Well-known member
Good for them
Mark-1
Well-known member
Greenpeace dumping stuff at sea! Insane, I hope they can be legally required to clean it all up.
oldgit
Well-known member
Report on R4 this morning.
According to GREENPEACE . The vessel involved has recorded where all the boulders have been dropped using GPS location.
The Lat and Long announced live over the air to the MCA surveillance vessel on station.
If HMG make good on promises to enforce their own restrictions on bottom trawling in the area , they will recover all the obstructions placed on the sea bed.
According to GREENPEACE . The vessel involved has recorded where all the boulders have been dropped using GPS location.
The Lat and Long announced live over the air to the MCA surveillance vessel on station.
If HMG make good on promises to enforce their own restrictions on bottom trawling in the area , they will recover all the obstructions placed on the sea bed.
RupertW
Well-known member
I’m disapointed they recorded where they dropped them. That will make it too easy for the destroyers of sea bed habitats to avoid them. Far better to have deliberately switched off their GPS and AIS and dropped randomly.
dom
Well-known member
Marking them may serve to introduce maritime speed bumps to stem the most egregious offences?
Mark-1
Well-known member
So if HMG don't "make good on promises" it stays there. Do governments typically stick to promises? Should organisations just dump stuff on condition that a Govt sticks to a promise?
Southern Water are pumping raw sewerage into the sea regularly. Can they just say "We're doing this until the Robert Peal's Promise that Income tax would be temporary is made good." (And sewerage will be gone long before those rocks are.)
Also, when (if) they do collect the rocks, what are they going to do with them? Landfill? Or are they just going to take them offshore a bit and dump them there? Have they stated a plan to usefully recycle them?
As a lad I was told "If it's over it's out." and that's the message I give my kids. At least a grey Bentos can decades in a decade or three. Tons of rock are one of the least biodegradable things I can think of.
RupertW
Well-known member
But the least polluting material to create seabed habitats
Gary Fox
N/A
I suppose it helps to publicise the gov's general weakness on dealing with our coastal waters, from foreign supertrawlers ruining the seabed, to the illegal immigrants using UKBF as a taxi service to a life of benefits.
I don't think the trawlers will be bothered though...
It's almost a pity they did it near Brighton, which has, or had, a Green Party MP and is a laughing-stock for that reason.
I don't think the trawlers will be bothered though...
It's almost a pity they did it near Brighton, which has, or had, a Green Party MP and is a laughing-stock for that reason.
Mark-1
Well-known member
It won't be habitat appropriate to that area, which is smooth seabed, not boulders.
However, if they want to create boulder habitat off Brighton, fantastic, go through the proper process to do so. This isn't habitat creation, it's just dumping stuff.
Mark-1
Well-known member
I suspect if there was the slightest intention of picking it up the stuff would have been marked and fitted with cable strong enough to lift it. Recovering without that is going to be a nightmare.
RupertW
Well-known member
It’s both but its mostly protecting some sea bed from being ploughed, crushed and scoured repeatedly
Stemar
Well-known member
I haven't got a great deal of time for Greenpeace, though I generally support their goals, but in this case, yes, go for it. The only things that will get hurt are the trawlers who are destroying ecosystems*, though I do wonder if some of those humongous trawlers wouldn't just pick up the rocks along with the fish.
*And the seahorses on whose heads they're dropping them...
*And the seahorses on whose heads they're dropping them...
dom
Well-known member
Sensible hat on, I agree with you, but either way, this bottom scouring vandalism has to stop.
BTW I do hope there were no seahorses down there !!
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Absolutely. I'd buy them a rock.
The marine centre on Cumbrae used to show - perhaps still shows - a video showing what the seabed nearby looked before and after bottom trawling. Before: an enchanted forest of amazing plants providing habitat for a huge number of species. After: a barren wasteland.
LONG_KEELER
Well-known member
Have to admit. I'm finding it difficult not to have support for them.
Should be an interesting wording for Notices to Mariners .
Should be an interesting wording for Notices to Mariners .
Mark-1
Well-known member
Agree and it will be interesting to see how long before the positions are noted. A decent recreational fishfinder could pick up a boulder these days and failing bthat trawlers will snag on them fairly quickly and make a note of the position. Plus there seemed to be a boat shadowing them which will already have rough positions for some. And then how long before it makes it onto Navionics community edits?
Last edited:
Snowgoose-1
Well-known member
Trawling most grotesque form of farming the seas. Should been banned long ago.
TernVI
Well-known member
My guess is that the rocks will bury themselves in the seabed after a few dozen tides.
Gary Fox
N/A
It's all relative, I doubt Victorian and Edwardian gaff rigged trawlers had much impact on fish stocks. Then came steam, then diesel, followed by high-tech fishfinders, then huge foreign trawlers dragging industrial size gear over the delicate seabed, and weak regulation, and here we are.
