Key facts
- Greenpeace dropped about 15 tonnes of boulders on the seabed off the Norfolk coast to block bottom trawling.
- Most of the boulders landed on the site earmarked for the Norfolk Vanguard East windfarm, the Guardian reported.
- RWE is in talks with Greenpeace to verify the boulders' placement and update its seabed surveys.
- Greenpeace UK's Will McCallum said the boulders would not be a genuine obstacle to construction.
Greenpeace activists dropped about 15 tonnes of boulders on the seabed off the Norfolk coast to block bottom trawling, and most of the stones landed on the site earmarked for the Norfolk Vanguard East offshore windfarm, the Guardian reported on November 14, 2026.
The campaigners built the barrier without consent from the marine authority, the Guardian reported, days before the prime minister told the Cop31 summit that the UK would invest £1bn of public money in the Vanguard West and Vanguard East windfarms. The Guardian said Greenpeace checked the seabed for cables, pipelines and shipwrecks but was not aware of the windfarm plans.
RWE, the German utility developing the project, is in talks with Greenpeace to verify the exact placement of the boulders so it can update seabed surveys it began last summer, the Guardian reported. A spokesperson for RWE called the communication "constructive" and said the company would "continue to investigate the precise implications" for the Norfolk Vanguard East project.
Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said any suggestion the boulders would cause a genuine obstacle was "absurd", adding that energy companies routinely move naturally occurring boulders from the seabed before building windfarms.