“I was really pleased to support this campaign – I’m an animal lover, and I know that many people in St Albans are too. Huge numbers of constituents wrote to me as supporters of the Stop the Sea Blast campaign.”
Daisy Cooper MP joined actor Joanna Lumley to lend support to a nation-wide campaign to protect sea life being harmed by unexploded munitions – which has already seen some success.
The Absolutely Fabulous star was in Parliament to meet and thank MPs and peers who have been supportive of the Stop Sea Blasts campaign. Daisy was already listed as a Parliamentary supporter on the campaign’s website.
The campaign was started over concerns about 100,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance that lie in waters around the UK, left over from the First and Second World Wars.
These bombs, mines and shells need to be cleared for the construction of offshore wind farms and there are an estimated 50 clearances for this reason each year.
Done the existing way, disposals are carried out by blowing up the bomb or mine. This causes huge disruption to marine habitats and threatens the survival of whales and dolphins.
On the same day that Daisy met Joanna, the UK Government published a policy paper addressing the campaign issue stating they supported the use of “lower noise alternatives” in place of what it calls “high order detonation”, as it recognises that marine species can be injured and/or killed by the sound from blasts.
Daisy said: “I was really pleased to support this campaign – I’m an animal lover, and I know that many people in St Albans are too. Huge numbers of constituents wrote to me as supporters of the Stop the Sea Blast campaign.
“I completely endorse the use of new technology to ‘burn out’ these old bombs using the less dangerous use of burning the materials, known as deflagration, rather than using explosions that torture our sea life. So it’s an absolutely fabulous result that, as a result of Joanna Lumley throwing her weight behind the campaign, the Government is now taking steps for old munitions dumped around our coasts to be disposed of safely.”