Defending the North Sea

The North Sea is in crisis after years of human activity - it is now among the most degraded seas in the world. Overfishing has caused fish stocks to collapse and left seabirds facing mass starvation. Other activities such as oil, sand and gravel extraction, waste dumping and chemical pollution have also caused devastation.

We're calling for 40 per cent of the North and Baltic Seas, as defined in our new report, to be turned into large-scale marine reserves - essentially national parks at sea. These marine reserves would protect ecologically important habitats as well as fish spawning and nursery grounds.