Dame Joanna Lumley is today (Thurs) hosting an explosive demonstration as part of her 'Stop Sea Blasts' campaign - to stop the MoD blasting the sea bed to clear military ordnance.<br /><br />Ab Fab star Lumley, 75, has called for a change in the way the sea floor is cleared of over 500,000 bombs and mines to make way for wind farms.<br /><br />They are traditionally just 'blown up’ which the actress says has an ''incredibly damaging'' effect on the auditory systems of whales and dolphins.<br /><br />Her campaign resulted in Defra changing its guidance last November on the way that unexploded ordnance is cleared from the sea floor. <br /><br />Today Lumley and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice met at a quarry for a demonstration.<br /><br />Her 'Stop Sea Blasts' campaign calls for a technique known as low order deflagration, which burns out the explosive rather than blows it up, and is proven to be several hundred times quieter.<br /><br />Lumley said: "The [detonation] technique can lead to mass-stranding events, such as at the Kyle of Durness in Scotland in 2011, where thirty-nine pilot whales were stranded following a nearby munitions disposal. Nineteen of these precious creatures lost their lives.<br /><br />“I think we owe it to our marine life to do all that we can to prevent such a situation ever happening again – both on our beaches and many miles out at sea.”<br /><br />Filmed on the 13th January 2022.
