Exploitation at sea
The North Sea Under Pressure
The iconic white Flamborough Cliffs rise from turquoise waters, covered in wildflowers and alive with nesting seabirds. But below the surface lies something just as incredible:
A hidden chalk reef, stretching 6km under the sea. This underwater chalk creates one of the North Sea's most important marine habitats, home to everything from crabs and starfish to fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
But for over a century, human activity has been destroying these fragile habitats. Unsustainable fishing and over-development have caused irreversible damage. Without proper protection, nature cannot recover.
We’ve been campaigning for over a decade to protect Yorkshire’s seas. Now we need your help.
Kelp under the sea (c) Alexander Mustard
You can stop the exploitation of our seas for good.
What's the damage?
Ill-considered development
The North Sea is crowded with activity, both above and below the water. Major projects—like infrastructure installation and resource exploration—are happening too quickly and with too little care for the environment:
- Noise pollution disturbs wildlife.
- The seabed is damaged, destroying breeding and feeding grounds.
- Essential migration routes for birds and fish are harder to navigate.
Tearing up the seabed
Bottom-towed fishing gear is devastating the seabed. Heavy metal equipment scrapes and flattens what was once a rugged, thriving reef:
- Complex habitats full of sponges, coral, and sea fans are reduced to lifeless plains of sand and mud.
- Creatures caught in its path are killed or displaced.
Industrial-level fishing
Fishing is vital for coastal communities, but over half of the UK’s fisheries are currently unsustainable:
- Supertrawlers catch fish at levels the seas cannot sustain.
- They also accidentally catch dolphins, porpoises, and other marine animals in their huge nets.
Offshore windfarms
Renewable energy helps us to combat climate change, but the pace and scale of offshore windfarm construction is unprecedented:
- Noise and seabed damage harm wildlife and disturb migration routes.
- We still don’t fully understand the long-term impact on marine ecosystems.
The cumulative impact of all this activity is the slow death of our marine environment – devastated seabed, plummeting fish stocks and once common species now endangered.
But all is not lost, not yet...
A puffin (Fratercula arctica) swims underwater. Puffins spend most of their lives at sea and are excellent underwater swimmers, which is how they catch small fish, their main food. They swimming is rather robotic to watch, with discret flaps of their wings and jerky changes in direction. Photographed in July 2011, Farne Islands, Northumberland. England, UK. North Sea. - Alexander Mustard/2020VISION
We can turn the tide against exploitation
Sanctuaries at sea
Over the last decade, we’ve fought to protect our seas and secured four new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Yorkshire’s waters.
But these nature reserves at sea must be more than just lines on a map—they need to be true sanctuaries where wildlife is safe, and habitats can recover.
At Flamborough’s MPA, for example, we’ve already ensured that bottom-towed fishing gear is banned in large areas, protecting this fragile environment.
North Sea Marine Protected Areas within 2009 (on the left) and 2019 (on the right)
A North Sea Recovery Network
Together with our partners, we are creating a North Sea Recovery Network: a connected system of protected wild places where:
- Marine wildlife can thrive.
- Habitats can replenish, recover, and restore.
We'll do this by:
- Working more closely with legislators and policy makers who value the expertise of our marine specialists when considering all human activities within Marine Protected Areas.
- Working with businesses to develop and innovate technology and systems that can be installed using low impact techniques, which we can advise upon to best protect our marine species.
With your support, we can make this vision a reality.
Donate £12
£12 could helps us to equip our cetacean survey volunteers with essential ID guides
Donate £32
£32 could help train and equip citizen scientists to undertake critical whale and dolphin surveys
Donate £204
£204 could play for essential training and equipment for beach clean coordinators
(c) Simon Ward
Understanding Our Seas
To protect our seas, we first need to learn as much as we can about them. Information about marine wildlife—where they feed, where they breed, and how their behaviour is changing—is vital.
Each year, we partner with the SeaWatch Foundation to train volunteers as citizen scientists. These volunteers help survey whales, dolphins, and porpoises along the Yorkshire coast.
By creating and building a sustainable legacy to protect and restore the wildlife in our seas, natural spectacles like tuna leaping from the waves and a seabed covered with a colourful mosaic of seagrass, oysters and kelp forests could be the reality for Yorkshire’s waters once again.
We need your help to protect our seas.
And finally...
Can you Give Seas a Chance by sharing our campaign on social media?
Thank you for your support!
