Greenpeace has been cleared in a case which a judge said “touches on the absurd” after the campaign group dropped boulders on to the seabed in an area known as Offshore Brighton.
Judge Edward Bindloss made remarks that opened the way to the decision today (Monday 7 February) by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to end the proceedings.
The court case was dropped just days after the Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world’s second-biggest fishing vessel, shed more than 100,000 dead fish into the sea off France.
The MMO had wanted to prosecute Greenpeace after activists built an underwater boulder barrier to protect the Offshore Brighton Marine Conservation Zone from bottom dredging by trawlers.
Greenpeace said that it dropped boulders in the area – eight times the size of Brighton and Hove – because the government had left 97 per cent of the protected areas in British waters open to destructive bottom trawling.
Near inshore waters off Sussex, including Brighton and Hove, have also been given some legal protection, with the approval of a byelaw last year.
Greenpeace was cleared of breaking environmental protection laws with its celebrity-backed operation – designed to protect marine life – with a judge saying that the prosecution was not in the public interest.
The MMO started proceedings against the campaign group and its chief executive, John Sauven, after it anti-trawling measures in the English Channel.
The Offshore Brighton area, 28 miles off the coast, was designated a Marine Conservation Zone, with its coarse sands and gravel hosting a diverse range of species.
Greenpeace dropped 20 granite boulders in the area, despite warnings from the MMO that it was not licensed to do so, in February last year because it said that the area needed protecting from trawlers.
Celebrities including Thandie Newton, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Paloma Faith, Bella Ramsey, Mark Rylance, Jarvis Cocker and Ranulph Fiennes backed the campaign and had their names on boulders.
The MMO announced that it would prosecute Greenpeace and the case had reached Newcastle Crown Court – close to the MMO’s headquarters – with a five-day jury trial scheduled for June.
But at a hearing last month, Judge Bindloss invited the MMO to reconsider, saying that prosecution was not in the public interest.
The judge said: “One of the ironies of this litigation is that both the MMO and Greenpeace are committed to improving the marine environment.”
He added: “The parties in this case should be allies, not antagonists. They should be acting in harmony, given their stated purpose and objectives are the same.
“Greenpeace should be a supporter of the licensing regime and the MMO should support the prevention of any harmful deep-sea fishing methods over important marine seabeds.
“It touches on the absurd that this litigation is happening at all.”
Judge Bindloss said that a decision not to prosecute Greenpeace would not amount to “favouritism by the MMO towards a well-known organisation” and the move would not set a precedent.
He said that the boulders were not harmful to the marine environment and Greenpeace’s actions were not dangerous.
The judge said that Greenpeace had given advance warnings of the operation and had marked the co-ordinates of each boulder, which had holes in so they could be lifted back off the seabed later.
The MMO considered its position and offered no evidence after Greenpeace and Mr Sauven pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking marine activity without a licence.
Kirsty Brimelow, for Greenpeace, told a hearing at Newcastle Crown Court today: “On behalf of Greenpeace, there is an acknowledgment that common sense has prevailed by the MMO and a welcoming of that common sense so that all can work to protect the marine environment.”
Outside court, Mr Sauven, who has now stepped down as executive director at Greenpeace UK, said: “Our action was designed to safely protect nature from destructive fishing in an area designated as protected but where the MMO is miserably failing to do its job.
“For them to waste court time and public money prosecuting us for doing exactly that is, as the judge said, absurd.
“This is a clear signal for the Environment Minister to take the urgent action needed to actively protect our oceans from industrial fishing and stop licensing destructive ships and fishing methods in all of the UK’s Marine Protected Areas.”
Each side will pay its own costs.
The MMO said that it expected Greenpeace to comply with marine licensing rules in the future, adding: “Should unlicensed activity occur in the future, we will continue to investigate and will consider enforcement actions in line with our published compliance and enforcement strategy.”
indeed, if greenpiss had paid the fee to plonk a rock into the sea bed, then all well and good…. how much is the licence anyway?