A Greenpeace protest planned for Tuesday on the Klaver Bank off the coast of Den Helder has angered local fishermen.

The environmental organisation will sink large stone blocks into the sea to create a ‘fish paradise’, the Greenpeace website says.

The Klaver Bank is one of the Dutch government’s Natura2000 areas in the North Sea and discussions are taking place to turn it into an ocean reservation.

Greenpeace says the discussions are taking too long and sinking the stone blocks is a protest action to draw attention to the fact that the Klaver Bank needs protection. ‘The area has an underwater environment that is unique in the Netherlands,’ the organisation says on its website.

However, fishermen in the fish-rich area are angry about the move and say their nets can easily catch on the stone blocks and that vessels could be capsized.

Greenpeace previously sunk stone blocks on the Klaver Bank in 2011 and says that these have encouraged new underwater life and encouraged biodiversity.