Activists dumped rocks off Norfolk coast on site of Burnham-backed project in protest against seabed trawling
The giant offshore windfarms backed by Andy Burnham this week may face unexpected stumbling blocks after Greenpeace activists unwittingly dumped about 15 tonnes of boulders on to the site as part of a campaign against seabed trawling in the North Sea.
Greenpeace created the “boulder barrier” to safeguard harbour porpoises off the Norfolk coast by dropping giant stone blocks, each weighing up to 2 tonnes, on to the sea floor to prevent a method of fishing known as bottom trawling.
The barrier will pose an additional challenge for the green energy developers because most of the boulders were dropped on to the site earmarked for one of the UK’s biggest planned windfarms, known as the Norfolk Vanguard project.
Greenpeace began dumping boulders on to the site, without consent from the marine authority, days before the prime minister told the Cop31 summit that the UK would invest £1bn of public money in the Vanguard West and Vanguard East windfarms in what is believed to be the biggest investment of its kind in UK history.
The Guardian understands that Greenpeace checked the seabed for any existing cables, pipelines or shipwrecks, but it was not aware of the plans to build the Vanguard East windfarm.
