The Greenpeace Bath group held a bake sale on Saturday 20th August to help raise funds for the latest campaign to stop industrial fishing.
Greenpeace Bath’s bake sale at Twerton Park
The bake sale was hosted at Bath City FC’s Twerton Park site, which was attended by over a thousand football fans.
Greenpeace volunteers and their friends and family baked cakes, treats and Bath City FC biscuits and footballer gingerbread figures.
The group raised £238, which will contribute towards the £10,000 cost of dropping a boulder in Marine-Protected Areas (MPAs).
Andy Parsons, Greenpeace Volunteer from Bradford on Avon said: “Bath City FC were so welcoming to our group and the fans’ reaction to our campaign could not have been more supportive.”
In the coming weeks, Greenpeace will build an underwater boulder barrier in an MPA to block destructive industrial fishing.
Greenpeace says it is taking marine protection “into its own hands” for the third time, as the Government “continues to fail” to uphold its promises to make Brexit a turning point for protecting small-scale fishing in the UK.
Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise will be sailing to the South West Deeps (East), a Marine Protected Area almost 200 kilometres off the Cornish coast, to make a portion of it off-limits to bottom-trawling.
Bottom-trawling is a destructive type of fishing as it drags weighted nets across the seafloor, destroying marine habitats.
Celebrities Stephen Fry, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Simon Pegg and Daniel Lismore are supporting the action. Their names will be stencilled onto the boulders before they are placed on the seabed from the ship.
The South West Deeps is one of the most heavily fished Marine Protected Areas in the UK.
Greenpeace UK will aim to build their third boulder barrier in August – the same month as the UN’s final negotiations for a Global Ocean Treaty in New York.
Andy continued: “As an island nation and with the port of Bristol our close neighbours, we know how important our oceans are for fishing communities, tourism and tackling climate change.
“It’s appalling that our government has the power to protect our oceans but is failing to do so – that’s why I support Greenpeace’s direct and successful action to put boulders on the sea floor and stop the destruction of this precious ecosystem.”
