SUPPOSEDLY protected marine areas off Britain’s coast are being pillaged by industrial fishing companies because the government is failing to protect them, green campaigners said today.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are designated tracts of sea and seabed where marine life should have chance to recover from overexploitation by fishing fleets.

But environment group Greenpeace says 92 per cent of the UK’s MPAs continue to be exploited by “the most destructive types of fishing” — including bottom trawling — because of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ failure to enforce regulations.

Greenpeace launched a report, All At Sea, at the UN Cop15 Biodiversity Conference in Canada earlier this month.

Anna Diski of Greenpeace UK said: “Our potentially world-leading network of marine protected areas are still just lines on a map as threadbare regulation allows harmful industrial fishing to relentlessly continue inside them. 

“At a time of climate and ecological crisis, this failure to properly protect our sensitive marine habitats is shameful.”

The department has been approached for comment.