Today, Greenpeace organised the deposit of five large stone boulders on the sea floor close to Kolobrzeg in order to disrupt illegal trawling activities. In 2009 they performed a similar action in the Kattegat between Sweden and Denmark.
Polish law states that the waters within three nautical miles of the coastline should be exempt from bottom trawling, but Greenpeace and local small-scale fishermen say that these rules are flouted by trawlers. The aim of the boulders is to draw attention to and prevent further poaching and destructive fishing practices.
According to local fishermen from Dzwirzyno, “when they trawl out near the shore, (they) catch all they meet on their way and destroy the sea bottom. They also destroy our nets ….if they fish out all the small fish, the cod will not have enough to eat. As this goes on, we will not have anything to fish. The zone free from trawling should be not 3, but and at least 6 miles offshore. ”
The trawlers are said to target sandeel, which is processed into fishmeal. Sandeel are an unregulated and unmanaged fishery, which is not limited by quotas. Overfishing of the stock could affect larger fish in the ecosystem, such as cod, herring and sprat. Greenpeace hope that their action will dissuade any poachers from trawling in the area and risk damaging their gear on the boulders.