The findings are published today in Greenpeace UK’s new report, Our Poisoned Land, which warns that intensive pesticide and fertiliser use is not only posing serious risks to human health, it’s also pushing British wildlife and our natural environment to the brink. Since 1966, Britain has lost over 19 million breeding birds, and more than half of UK butterfly species are now missing from areas they were found in the 1970s.

Greenpeace investigators examined FERA Pesticide Usage Survey data covering vegetables commonly eaten as part of a traditional Sunday roast. These include onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, peas, swede and turnips – alongside strawberries as a classic British dessert.

The analysis found:

• 102 unique pesticides used across seven food categories

1. Onions and leeks are treated with 43 different pesticides
2. Strawberries are treated with 42
3. Carrots and parsnips are treated with 40
4. Field potatoes are treated with 31
5. Peas are treated with 29
6. Swede and turnips are treated with 20
7. Stored potatoes are treated with 5

Seven of the 102 pesticides are already banned in the EU due to their links to cancer and endocrine disruption in humans, as well as posing high risk to the health of bees, birds, mammals and aquatic ecosystems. 

Of the nine most commonly used pesticides, eight are classified as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) – meaning they are toxic to humans, wildlife, or both and three are classified as forever chemicals (PFAS) [2].
Many are linked to: 

• Harm to bees and other pollinators 
• Severe damage to aquatic ecosystems
• Persistence in the environment and accumulation in the food chain
• Cancer and endocrine disruption in humans

As well as revealing the sheer variety of pesticides used in UK farming, the analysis also highlights the number of times these British staples are dosed across the growing season. All crops received multiple pesticide applications with many sprayed dozens of times. 

The repeated exposure is having consequences far beyond farmland – affecting insects, birds, mammals, rivers and soil health across the countryside. 

Nina Schrank, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said:

“A Sunday roast and strawberries might feel like one of the most natural and traditionally British meals imaginable but behind the scenes they’re produced using an astonishing cocktail of pesticides.

“Our countryside is being drenched in pesticides, with devastating consequences for bees, birds, butterflies, rivers and the soil. Fields that once hummed with wildlife are falling silent while agrochemical giants rake in enormous profits and farmers are trapped in a costly cycle of chemical dependency. That doesn’t strengthen food security – it makes it more fragile. 

“Farmers are also under huge pressure from rising costs, climate shocks and volatile markets but some are already showing there’s another way. They’re reducing pesticide use and producing food alongside helping wildlife. If the government is serious about restoring nature and ensuring food security, it must properly back farmers and commit to halving pesticide use by 2030.”

Currently, the UK government’s Pesticides National Action Plan targets just a 10% reduction by 2030.

ENDS

Notes to Editors: 

[1] Full data analysis and methodology available on request. 

• Active ingredients recorded on UK-grown vegetables and fruit sourced from FERA Pesticide Usage Survey data.

[2] HHP status cross-referenced against the PAN International List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (December 2024) and the Pesticide Properties DataBase (PPDB), University of Hertfordshire. PFAS status – Pesticide Properties DataBase (PPDB), Agriculture & Environment Research Unit (AERU), University of Hertfordshire. 

Greenpeace is calling for:

• a 50% reduction in pesticide and fertiliser use by 2030
• an 80% reduction by 2040
• funding and support for farmers to reduce reliance on chemical inputs
• tighter restrictions on pesticide use in public spaces and homes

The post Traditional roast dinner sprayed with cocktail of over 100 pesticides appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

Last week, the government finally listened to our calls for change. They announced a new policy to start delinking gas and electricity prices.

This is a massive win for everyone who uses electricity. It means that when fossil fuel prices spike, like we’re seeing right now with the conflict in Iran, your electricity bills won’t automatically skyrocket along with them. We’ve started to break the chains that bind our wallets to global gas markets.

How we did it: People power vs. Big Gas

This victory was built by tens of thousands of us who refused to accept the Great Gas Rip Off.

While energy executives have been making huge sums and profiting off wars, we have been taking action together. Over 60,000 people signed the petition, sending a clear message to Westminster. Greenpeace volunteers all over the country took the fight to the heart of their communities by:

• Handing out 5,000 beer mats explaining how gas is responsible for the high price of electricity in pubs and chatting with pub landlords
• Chatting with the local community on stalls
• Plastering posters and bus stop ads across the country to make sure MPs couldn’t look the other way.

From a huge protest at the Staythorpe Gas Power Station to political conversations in the halls of the Labour Party conference, we made sure the message was everywhere. 

Our public campaigning was supported by our report, Power Shift. This report explained the problem and set out our proposed solution. It gave the government and supportive MPs the facts they needed to champion our cause and solve the issue.

What exactly changed?

Take the next step

Tell the UK government to lead the renewable revolution.

Sign the petition

In the UK, the most expensive power source sets the price for all electricity. Most of the time, that expensive source is gas. This means even when the vast majority of our electricity comes from cheap renewable energy, even a tiny top-up of gas can make the whole bill expensive. As we move away from fossil fuels and expand renewables, this old system has kept our prices unfairly high.

Many new renewable projects sit outside of this complicated pricing system – years ago, the government started giving new renewable projects ‘set prices’ for their energy so they wouldn’t be affected by fluctuating fossil fuel prices. Now, they are moving older renewable and nuclear plants into this same system. This means that more electricity than ever is capped at set prices, meaning less of the electricity we need to meet demand will be affected by high and volatile gas prices.

Is it perfect? Not yet.

What now? 

We’ve shown that the government will move if we push hard enough. Now, let’s keep the pressure on to ensure the future of UK energy is 100% renewable and 100% affordable.

The post We won! The Great Gas Rip Off is finally ending appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

“Despite Reform’s gains, huge numbers of people have voted for political parties that promise an escape from fossil fuel crises and greater protection for the nature we love. The winning parties in Wales and Scotland both have plans to reach net zero earlier than the Westminster government. The Greens have seen their first two mayors in London and gains from Hastings to Glasgow and Bangor to Norwich. This adds up to a resounding mandate for ambitious action to secure cheap, homegrown renewable energy and to protect our environment.

“The lesson Labour should take from this drubbing is that green policies offer a path out of political irrelevance. Our own polling shows former Labour voters strongly support investing in renewables, taxing the war profits of oil and gas giants and protecting our wildlife and oceans. There are many reasons why people voted Reform, but I’m prepared to bet that few of them involved a desire to rip up the rules that protect nature or to keep our bills at the mercy of Trump’s foreign wars.”

Ends

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office – 07970 030 019 / press.uk@greenpeace.org

Notes:

• New YouGov polling commissioned by Greenpeace suggests that voters, particularly Labour defectors, would like to see the Labour government adopt stronger policies on climate and nature. See the results here.
• Greenpeace has analysed the manifestoes in all three nations and assessed each party’s plans on key policy areas including: climate and energy, homes and transport, justice and democracy, and nature and the environment. Read the results here.

The post Comment on Welsh, Scottish and local election results appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

The poll was designed to test the importance of climate and environment policies when compared against a selection of other policies in a simulated, more realistic experiment. Opinions were canvassed on issues ranging from higher taxes on oil and gas company profits and investment in renewable power sources, to efforts to help to insulate homes and tougher regulations on harmful pesticides.

For voters defecting from Labour since 2024, amongst the most popular policies in this test were investing in renewable power and implementing higher taxes on oil and gas company profits. Two other policies tested, the re-nationalisation of water companies and a wealth tax, performed similarly. Voters were more keen on Labour adopting these policies than a basket of others including money for police & defence and freezing VAT on fuel (for the full list, see the table below). The experiment demonstrates how these policies maintained their popularity even up against other popular ideas.

Policies to protect nature – such as tougher regulations on nature-harming pesticides and cracking down on overfishing were also more popular with this group than with the public at large. Out of the policies tested, reducing the number of foreign worker visas was amongst the least popular proposals with Labour defectors.

Ami McCarthy, Head of Politics at Greenpeace UK, said:

“These poll results clearly show that not only do the British public care deeply about climate action, but they also see it as the solution to many of the challenges the country is facing. In a comparative poll, investing in renewable power and higher taxes on oil and gas company profits were among the top policy priorities for defecting Labour voters, which sends a clear sign to the Government to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels and towards a fairer future. Voters know that the route to lower bills is through more renewable energy and they want politicians to stand up to those who are making eye-watering profits from driving the climate crisis. 

“Every new global crisis that hikes our energy bills yet again is a reminder that the UK remains dangerously exposed to volatile oil and gas markets and overly dependent on fossil fuels. Labour must now choose to rebuild public trust by offering a future that is fairer, more secure and no longer tied to fossil fuels.” 

Key Findings

• “Investing in renewable power sources” and “higher taxes on oil and gas companies”  were amongst Labour defectors’ most chosen options when tested in a more realistic environment against other policies.
• Policies to protect nature – such as tougher regulations on nature-harming pesticides and cracking down on overfishing were more likely to be chosen by Labour defectors than the general population
  

Greenpeace / YouGov poll results

Values shown are the modelled probabilities that a respondent chose the proposal including the particular policy. Numbers shown as decimals rather than percentages to reflect the difference in polling methods, and they should not be treated as a population point estimate. 

Bold = Greenpeace policy. Source: YouGov / Greenpeace conjoint experiment, fieldwork 6–7 May 2026, sample 2,057 GB adults.

Greenpeace recommendations

The polling results revealed key areas where Labour could rebuild the trust of voters while addressing some of the country’s biggest challenges. In response to the highest ranking policy priorities in the poll specific to climate and nature, Greenpeace UK urges the Government to implement the following policies:

Taxing oil and gas company profits

As oil and gas companies continue to make billions in war profits, with Shell today announcing their staggering quarterly profits of $6.9 billion, it is more urgent than ever for the Government to strengthen fossil fuel taxation. This will support households, fund climate action and drive the transition to renewable energy that will insulate against future oil price shocks in the long term. As well as helping ordinary households through the energy crisis, taxes on oil and gas company profits should pay for climate loss and damage inflicted by extreme weather at home and abroad, and provide greater support towards a just transition for energy workers. On top of raising vital revenue, the Treasury should use taxes as a lever to further the government’s policy aims to deliver their Clean Power 2030 target and their legal obligations to Net Zero by 2050.

Investing in renewables

The war in Iran has brought chaos to the volatile global gas and oil market, leaving UK households and businesses once again exposed to price shocks and soaring bills. The government is on the right track with its Clean Power 2030 target, aiming to increase the UK’s energy security and independence.. Now the government must hold its nerve and stay the course. The strategy is working: new wind and solar capacity built since 2021 has saved Britain roughly £7 million per day in gas purchases since the start of the Iran crisis in March 2026. To go further, the government must ensure the financial benefits of the energy transition are felt directly by bill payers. The government should do more to support renewable community energy projects which provide benefits directly to the communities that host them, through cheap loans, targeted skills development, and fast and cheaper connections to the grid. 

Tougher regulations on nature-harming pesticides

The Government needs an ambitious plan to restore biodiversity and protect our land, rivers and wildlife. Reversing nature decline isn’t optional; it’s vital for our food security and our health. 70% of our countryside is farmland, often heavily treated with harmful chemicals. Greenpeace is calling for a 50% reduction in the use and toxicity of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers by 2030, rising to 80% by 2040. Farmers must be supported financially and rewarded for adopting nature-friendly practices that are better for our health and the environment. This includes payment for not using harmful insecticides, fungicides and herbicides.

Notes:

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office –press.uk@greenpeace.org  or 020 7865 8255

Methodology used by YouGov Plc polled 2,057 GB adults for Greenpeace on 6-7 May 2026 on the eve of voting in the Local Elections, Welsh & Scottish elections. In a conjoint survey experiment, respondents were shown two competing bundles of four policies — “Proposal A” and “Proposal B” — that the Labour Party could propose, drawn from a pool of 18. They were asked which set, if either, they would prefer Labour to adopt. The exercise was repeated three times per respondent. The figure reports the probability that a proposal was selected when its policies appeared. They are a measure of comparative appeal between competing platforms, not of headline support. 

Greenpeace experts have scrutinised each party’s manifesto and assessed their plans in key areas where urgent action is needed on climate and energy, homes and transport, justice and democracy. Read our blog 2026 elections in Scotland: Greenpeace’s analysis of what are the parties saying on climate and nature? 

The post Polling shows Labour defectors want action on climate, nature and the cost of living appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

Photographs and video of the various projections are available here.

In response to Shell announcing their first-quarter profits this morning, Maja Darlington, climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:

“As bombs fall and bills go up, more billions roll in for Shell, one of the UK’s top war profiteers. Shell is making $53,241 per minute while millions of people across Britain are dreading their next energy bill. Our fossil fuelled economy is rigged in favour of oil giants like Shell – whether it’s war or wildfires, they profit, we pay. 

“In the twenty-first century we have cheaper, cleaner alternatives that we can use to power Britain without anybody being bombed. We don’t need to let the fossil fuel industry hold us to ransom and pass on the costs of endless wars and limitless pollution. The cost of living crisis, the climate crisis, the middle-east crisis, these are all oil industry operating costs. We need to stop subsidising them, introduce new taxes to make them pay and start taxing their obscene profits properly.”

At the weekend a team of Greenpeace activists projected the truth about the source of Shell’s huge profits, announced at 7am this morning, onto their global headquarters by the Thames in London.

The team projected onto the huge office building from a number of different angles, including from the other side of the Thames, and also onto a nearby Shell garage, all in central London.

The projection includes footage from the conflict in Iran as well as footage of the extreme weather that has been increasing around the world in recent years, and footage of Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan.

Photographs and video of the various projections are available here.

ENDS

Contact

Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

The post Greenpeace shines light on Shell’s war profiteering  appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

The post Trump’s bombs bring billions for BP, bills for us appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

Monday 20th April, 2026, Scotland. At 6.30am this morning, as the first of the day’s golfers were arriving at the Trump Turnberry Golf Club, a team of Greenpeace activists installed a windfarm on the green of the 4th hole, together with a sign reading ‘Choose wind, dump Trump’. 

Lily-Rose Ellis, Climate Campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:

“Donald Trump wants to keep us as lifetime members of his Gulf Club, where every time he starts an illegal war, bills go through the roof while his fossil fuel backers make billions. But we don’t need to stay stuck in his sand trap – the renewables Trump hates are the best insurance policy against the chaos he’s unleashed. Wind and solar farms built since the start of the Ukraine war have saved us seven million pounds every day since Trump attacked Iran and drove gas prices back up again [1]. More clean energy that doesn’t rely on the Strait of Hormuz or Russian pipelines can save us money, boost our security and tackle climate change. It’s a hole in one.”

Three Greenpeace activists carried six model turbines, each around ten feet tall, along the beach to the course and erected them around the green. As the first golfers approached the first green, they dismantled the turbines and removed them from the green so as not to impede the game.

On Tuesday last week President Trump posted on social media urging Britain to ‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!!’ in the North Sea, and ‘NO MORE WINDMILLS!’ (sic). Polling shows that roughly two-thirds of Scottish voters (65%) believe Britain should not follow US President Donald Trump’s calls for increasing oil and gas extraction and should instead focus on boosting renewable energy. [2]

That public preference is supported by research showing that if both the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields were exploited, it would only reduce our gas imports by about 3%. [3] But while more drilling wouldn’t help bill payers, research shows Trump’s war in Iran could increase the total profits made by the oil and gas industry this year by $234 billion, or $30 million an hour. [4]

ENDS

Contact

Pictures and footage available here.

Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Notes

1.https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/clean-power-fortifies-britain-against-gas-price-shocks/ 

2.https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/britain-should-not-follow-donald-trumps-energy-policy-say-scots 

3.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/04/new-north-sea-drilling-jackdaw-rosebank-uk-gas-imports 

4.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/big-oil-huge-war-windfall-consumers 

The post Greenpeace build wind farm on Trump’s Golf Course appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

On 14 February 2025, a Russian Geran-2 drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the roof of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The NSC acts as a protective shield, preventing radiation leaking from the ageing concrete sarcophagus encasing nuclear reactor 4. The report concludes that without urgent repairs to the NSC, the sarcophagus is at risk of collapse. 

The drone attack ripped a 15 m2 hole in the roof of the NSC, with shrapnel causing additional damage across a 200 m2 area. Fires continued smouldering in the inner membrane layer of the NSC’s roof for three weeks after the attack, leading to a loss of humidity and temperature control. This could lead to corrosion and may reduce the 100-year design life of the structure if humidity control is not restored by 2030.

Russia’s ongoing attacks against Ukraine have hampered international efforts to fix the damage to the NSC, with the plant under constant threat from Russian missiles and drones, including loss of essential electrical power. Despite ongoing investigations and damage assessments, it will be nearly impossible to start the major engineering works needed at the site under current conditions.

The report’s author Eric Schmieman, a civil engineer who worked as a senior technical adviser on the original design and construction of the NSC, said: “It’s almost impossible for people to grasp the magnitude of the lethal conditions inside the Sarcophagus. Tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel, dust and debris. My colleagues and I spent years investigating inside the ruins of Chornobyl reactor 4. We designed and built the New Safe Confinement to protect the environment and people of Ukraine and Europe. It is urgent that all measures are taken to find a way to restore as much of the critical functions of the facility as possible”.

Greenpeace plans to submit the report to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine as independent evidence of potential Russian war crimes. 

Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine said:

“In April 1986, Ukraine and the world suffered the worst nuclear disaster in history. Today, decades later, the radioactive hazards at Chornobyl remain – with all efforts being made to contain and manage its toxic legacy. These are incredibly complex challenges. The Russian drone strike has now increased the risk that the Sarcophagus will collapse before it can be carefully dismantled. Greenpeace has a simple and clear message: the Russian crime of attacking Chornobyl must be punished, including maximum sanctions against its nuclear agency, Rosatom”. 

Activists from Greenpeace Ukraine held a protest inside the NSC calling for continued international support for Ukraine and for maximum sanctions against Russia’s state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom, which it believes to be complicit in the military campaign. 

Ends

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office –  press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Notes:

The full report, including executive summary, is available here. 

Pictures and video of the Greenpeace protest at Chornobyl can be downloaded here.

The report author Eric Schmieman led the Battelle Memorial Institute team during the conceptual design of the NSC from 2001 to 2014. He served as the Manager of Environmental Safety and Health Department of the Chornobyl NSC Project Management Unit (PMU), and was the Senior Technical Advisor to the PMU Director. He lived in Slavutych, Ukraine from 2006 to 2013. While employed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, he contributed to projects funded by the US Department of Energy, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the International Atomic Energy Administration, and other government agencies.

On the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, personnel from Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, were part of the attack and occupation of Chornobyl nuclear plant. Four years later Rosatom still illegally occupies the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Despite this, all efforts to secure international sanctions against Rosatom have been blocked, principally by Hungary and France, while billions of euros are traded in their contracts with Rosatom, directly funding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The post Russian attacks raise nuclear risks from Chornobyl plant, Greenpeace report warns appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

With only two days left of PrepCom, the key ocean treaty talks happening at the UN HQ this week, Greenpeace UK is calling on the UK government to ask its delegates in New York to completely reject the new text proposed.

Megan Randles, Greenpeace’s head of delegation to the UN talks, said:

“The organisations that have presided over decades of destruction on the high seas have made a completely unacceptable power-grab which would dramatically weaken the Treaty’s ability to protect the ocean.

“They are attempting to re-write the Treaty in favour of fishing industry vested interests. These organisations want to be able to block and derail conservation progress, like the creation of marine protected areas, and these amendments would give them power to do just that.

“We urgently need governments to reject these proposals before key ocean treaty talks end. If they don’t, they risk failing in their commitment to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 with catastrophic consequences.”

Ends

Notes to Editors:

1. Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) are attempting to weaken the High Seas Treaty text to give themselves additional powers that would significantly restrict ocean protection measures. Campaigners are sounding the alarm on this proposed text where RFMOs have made significant amendments, the relevant sections are: Para 1(b), (c), (g bis), (g ter), (i), Para 4, Para 5. These amendments would shore up RFMOs own supremacy, and stall and derail ocean protection measures like sanctuary proposals.
2. The current language of the text goes far beyond the existing article 5 of the Treaty.

The post Regional Fisheries Management Organisations are on the precipice of weakening the High Seas Treaty appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

UK MPAs are designated to protect marine wildlife and fragile ocean habitats but, as the analysis of European fisheries landings data [1] proves, these designations are currently nothing more than lines on a map. 

Of the 1.3 million tonnes, over 1 million were caught by pelagic trawlers – vessels that use enormous nets up to 240 metres wide and 50 metres long, scooping up everything in their path. 250,000 tonnes were caught by bottom-towed gear, including bottom trawlers, which drag heavy, destructive nets across the seabed, devastating marine ecosystems. [2]

Campaigners say the findings expose the stark gap between political promises and reality at sea. Large-scale industrial fishing continues to devastate areas that are supposed to be safe havens – even though the UK government has had the powers to change this since Brexit.

Chris Thorne, Senior Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: 

“Just beneath the surface of our seas, right here in the UK, lies an extraordinary world of marine life – from shoals of colourful fish to dolphins to seahorses – but it’s facing a level of vandalism greater than we’d ever accept on land.

“The government claims vast areas of UK waters are protected, but the reality is a national scandal. Since 2020, more than 1.3 million tonnes of fish have been caught inside the UK’s so-called marine protected areas. 

“Protection means nothing if these hulking industrial trawlers are allowed to devastate crucially important areas. MPAs should be safe havens where our incredible marine life and ecosystems can recover and thrive. Instead they remain protected only on paper and precious ocean life is being pushed to the brink.”

A process to ban bottom trawling across the MPA network began in 2020 [3], and this analysis highlights the cost of delay. Various governments have dragged their feet in implementing it, allowing industrial vessels to continue dragging heavy, destructive nets across the seabed, devastating marine ecosystems. Almost one fifth of the total catch (250,000 tonnes) was caught using bottom-towed gear. 

Even if a bottom trawling ban was fully implemented, the revelation that 1 million tonnes of fish caught was caught in MPAs using pelagic gear – which would not be restricted by current bottom-trawling proposals – makes it clear that marine life and habitats inside UK MPAs would remain exposed and vulnerable.

Chris Thorne continued: 

“Since leaving the EU, the UK government has had full powers to properly protect our marine protected areas – a measure that’s needed not only for marine life itself but also to support local fishing communities. Yet many remain little more than lines on a map.

“Banning bottom trawling in some sites would be a step forward, but other destructive fishing methods would still be allowed and much of the MPA network would remain vulnerable.

“If the government wants to show real leadership on ocean protection, it must stop all industrial fishing in UK MPAs and work with other states to properly protect 30% of the wider Atlantic Ocean by 2030, including the Sargasso Sea. This is the only way to ensure our oceans can recover and sustain future generations.”

ENDS

Notes to editor

[1] UK fisheries data: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-sea-fisheries-annual-statistics-report-2024 

EU fisheries data: https://stecf.ec.europa.eu/data-dissemination/fdi_en

[2] 250,000 tonnes were caught by bottom-towed gear, including beam trawls, demersal trawls, dredges and demersal seines. These are all covered by the proposed MPA bans on bottom-towed gear. 

[3] The Marine protected areas process has 4 stages. We are currently in the middle of Stage 3. 

• Stage 1, which began in 2020, focused on the initial review and introduction of byelaws for four offshore MPAs to protect specific features. 
• Stage 2 targeted 13 specific MPAs, primarily focusing on protecting “rock, and rocky and biogenic reef features” from the impacts of bottom-towed fishing gear. 
• Stage 3 aims to manage remaining fishing activities in MPAs not covered by Stage 1 or 2, and will cover parts of 42 further MPAs. We are currently waiting for the MMO to release the results of their analysis of the consultation on this stage.
• Stage 4 covers the impacts of fishing on MPAs with highly mobile species features. These are two MPAs protecting harbour porpoise, and three MPAs protecting certain bird species. The consultation on this stage is still to come. 

Methodology: 

A full brief on the method used in this analysis is available here

A breakdown of the data is available on request.

Video content:

Archive footage from 2020-2024 featuring supertrawlersfishing inside UK MPAs and supertrawlers that have previously fished inside UKMPAs plus Greenpeace supertrawler/ MPA protests: https://media.greenpeace.org/Detail/27MZIFJVQZYOW

February 2026 footage from Greenpeace UK’s latest monitoring tour of UKMPAs in the English Channel is available for download via WeTransfer here.

Key findings: 

• 1.347 million tonnes of fish were caught inside UK offshore MPAs
• More than 1 million tonnes were caught using pelagic gear, which will not be restricted by proposed bottom-trawling bans
• 250,000 tonnes of fish caught using bottom-towed fishing gear
• EU vessels caught around 800,000 tonnes, while UK vessels caught around 545,000 tonnes

The post More than 1.3 million tonnes of fish taken from UK’s marine protected areas since 2020, new analysis reveals appeared first on Greenpeace UK.