Greenpeace vows to carry on dropping boulders on Dogger Bank despite warnings

Campaigners said they had to continue because the Government were not doing enough to protect the Dogger Bank around 80 miles off Yorkshire's coast.

The shallow sandbank is protected for its seabed habitat, and is home to crabs, starfish, flatfish and sandeels which are food for seabirds such as puffins, as well as for porpoises and dolphins and fish including cod.

The activists are trying to close off around 50 square miles of the sea to bottom trawlers which drag heavy weighted nets over the seabed to catch fish.

However they have been criticised for threatening the lives of fishermen, as well as scientists doing surveys and those involved in offshore wind developments.

The campaign group says the coordinates of all boulders have been given to relevant authorities to be marked on charts.

Greenpeace has received a letter from the Government's Marine Management Organisation formally requesting it to desist and that the activity is under investigation.

Campaigner Chris Thorne warned that Boris Johnson's promises to protect 30 per cent of the UK's land and seas were "meaningless" without concrete plans to deliver on the targets.

"If our Government is not willing to commit to proper protection for the Dogger Bank and the rest of the UK's Marine Protected Areas, we are forced to continue doing all that we can to prevent bottom trawling from destroying this vital marine habitat.

"We can't let bottom trawlers, which often operate illegally with their positioning systems off, continue to rip up the protected seabed while our Government does nothing.

"We will not sit idly by while our oceans are destroyed."