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More than 100 people attended the event at Totley Rise Methodist Church on Wednesday, August 24.

Attendees enjoyed home cooked food, a quiz, a raffle and an auction for limited edition Greenpeace ocean prints.

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A boulder falls into the English channel from the Greenpeace ship, Esperanza with the Marine Management Organisation Fisheries Patrol boat seen in the background.
Inert granite boulders were being placed into the English Channel as part of a new bottom trawler exclusion zone in the Offshore Brighton Marine Protected Area.
The initiative will help prevent destructive bottom trawling which destroys the Offshore Brighton Marine Protected Area's protected seabed. — A boulder falls into the English channel from the Greenpeace ship, Esperanza with the Marine Management Organisation Fisheries Patrol boat seen in the background. Inert granite boulders were being placed into the English Channel as part of a new bottom trawler exclusion zone in the Offshore Brighton Marine Protected Area. The initiative will help prevent destructive bottom trawling which destroys the Offshore Brighton Marine Protected Area's protected seabed.

Holly Campbell, from Hillsborough, said: “I had a great evening out in good company helping a vital cause. We all want our oceans protected for future generations.”

The money raised will go towards the £10,000 cost of dropping each boulder to make an underwater barrier to block fishing vessels from trawling the seabed – home to catfish, cockles and corals.

The seabed is trawled by weighted nets, which tear up marine habitats, for an average of 5,000 hours a year, according to the Marine Conservation Society.

Campaigners called on the prime minister to ban industrial fishing in marine protected areas by amending commercial fishing licences.

Sheffield Greenpeace hosted a sellout curry and quiz evening which raised £1,202.76 for a campaign to block industrial fishing.

Their campaign is supported by celebrities such as Stephen Fry, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Simon Pegg whose names will be carved into the boulders.

Ms Campbell added: “As an island nation, we know how important our oceans are for fishing communities, tourism and tackling climate change. The boulder barrier is a last resort to save the UK’s marine life; we would prefer that the Government just did their job and kept long-standing promises to end destructive fishing in marine protected areas.”

UK Government agency the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) criticised Greenpeace’s plan to plunge rocks into the 4,655 kilometre squared site, larger than Cornwall itself.

MMO took Greenpeace to court over the earlier Dogger Bank barrier but later dropped the case in February after a judge invited it to reconsider.

Judge Edward Bindloss, of Newcastle Crown Court, said: “Both the MMO and Greenpeace are committed to improving the marine environment… the parties in this case should be allies, not antagonists.”

The MMO banned bottom trawling at four of the UK’s 76 protected zones this year and is working on bans at 13 further sites.

A spokesperson said they were “surprised and disappointed” by Greenpeace’s plan to “undertake further unlawful activity… particularly as MMO and Greenpeace have a shared interest in protecting our precious marine environment”.

Sheffield Greenpeace raises £1,200 towards boulder barrier campaign to block industrial fishing