Campaigners deploy Attenborough-boulder against trawlers as maritime police watch on

• Marine watchdog’s 1,700-tonne patrol vessel in stand-off with Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise
• Maritime police watch on from sea and sky as activists place ‘Attenborough’-shaped boulder on seabed to halt destructive fishing inside supposedly ‘protected’ offshore waters.
• Greenpeace UK accuses ministers of prioritising legal threats against campaigners over enforcing protection for threatened marine environments.

PHOTO AND VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE ‘ATTENBOULDER’ DEPLOYMENT ARE AVAILABLE FOR USE HERE. 

LONDON, 12 November 2026 – Amid a tense stand-off with maritime authorities involving a patrol vessel and spotter plane shadowing Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise, activists have succeeded in lowering ‘Attenboulder‘ – a limestone boulder sculpted in the likeness of Sir David Attenborough – onto the ocean floor inside the Southern North Sea Marine protected area. Trafalgar Sentinel, one of the Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) two large patrol vessels, has been shadowing the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise since its departure from London.

Today’s action completes the group’s successful ‘boulder barrier’ to deter destructive bottom trawling inside a Marine Protected Area (MPA) set up to supposedly safeguard harbour porpoises. This sensitive marine habitat is the most bottom-trawled offshore MPA in the UK. Campaigners detected the tracking signals of 14 bottom trawlers in the immediate vicinity as the boulder was being placed.

The action escalates a standoff between campaigners and UK government authorities. MMO enforcement officers onboard the Trafalgar Sentinel radioed the Arctic Sunrise earlier today threatening legal action if the boulder placement went ahead, while later a spotter plane was deployed.At the end of last week, the watchdog wrote to Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Will McCallum, claiming that placing items on the seabed without a licence went against the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. 

Greenpeace UK proceeded with Attenboulder, fundamentally disagreeing with the government’s attempts to criminalise peaceful protest that protects the environment. The group asserts that a previous legal action against the boulder protest had failed, and that ministers have left them with no alternative after failing to ban destructive fishing within government-designated Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

Speaking from aboard the Arctic Sunrise, Head of Oceans at Greenpeace UK Elena Polisano, said:

“The government threatens legal crackdowns for placing limestone on the seabed, yet sits idle while industrial supertrawlers bulldoze protected ocean habitats every single day. Is using half of the UK’s offshore patrol fleet and a spotter plane to intimidate Greenpeace really the best use of its resources?

“Treating ocean defenders like criminals for upholding the government’s own promises is a total inversion of justice. Attenboulder will stand guard on the sea floor where ministers are nowhere to be seen.”

Greenpeace has previously defeated government attempts to criminalise its boulder barriers. In 2021, the MMO brought criminal charges against Greenpeace UK and its former Executive Director John Sauven – who faced up to two years in prison – before a judge labeled the MMO’s case ‘absurd’ and publicly questioned whether prosecuting environmental campaigners served the public interest. The MMO eventually decided to offer no evidence against Greenpeace, resulting in verdicts of not guilty being recorded.

Bottom trawling remains legal across the vast majority of the UK’s offshore protected sites, with less than 1% of UK waters fully protected from destructive fishing. Greenpeace maintains that sinking heavy boulders creates an immediate, physical barrier that deters bottom trawlers from operating, establishing safe havens for marine life to regenerate.

Greenpeace boulder barriers pose no danger to mariners or fishermen. As soon as each boulder is placed, the group notifies the relevant maritime authorities of their coordinates so that maritime maps are updated, alerting mariners to their location.

-ENDS-

Contact: UK Press Office
+44 020 7865 8255
press.uk@greenpeace.org

Notes to Editors:

• High-resolution photos, 4K broadcast B-roll of the ‘Attenboulder’ protest are available here. 
• Interviews with Elena Polisano aboard the Arctic Sunrise are available via the Greenpeace UK Press Office.
• On the 5th of November 2026, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) sent Greenpeace UK a letter threatening legal action unless they halt any further boulder placements. The MMO’s vessel followed and radioed Greenpeace during their journey to the North Sea, demanding they cease further boulder placements. Greenpeace maintains their legal right to peaceful protest.
• The barriers act as a deterrent, not a hazard. Greenpeace has sent the coordinates of all of its boulder placements to relevant authorities to update in maritime maps so that trawlers know to avoid the area. Greenpeace boulder actions have never resulted in any accident, injury or loss of life.