Rage over boat owners who drill mooring holes in Raet National Park – news Sørlandet – Local news, TV and radio

news meets park manager Jenny Marie Gulbrandsen in Raet National Park in Arendal. She is alarmed by the attitudes of some who travel by boat. – This has become a practice now that people have bought bigger boats, and we see this as a serious offence. This is irreparable damage to protected rock, she says. Now it has happened again near Flosta on Grundesholmen and Sandvika in Arendal, writes Agderposten, which first wrote about the case. – People must have common sense news has spoken to a landowner in the same area, who last year removed nine such illegal bolts. – I think it is absolutely terrible that people settle in this way, and especially in a national park. The person will remain anonymous. – People have to think about it. This is about folk custom. It’s as if I walked in their garden and dug around, he says. The landowner explains that he saw several bolts attached to the rock walls, which he cut off. – People take too much comfort when they bring an impact drill from home and drill a hole. The landowner is calling for more police in the archipelago. The holes that some boat owners have made in the national park. Photo: Vetle Hjortland / news Destroyer of the national park Park manager Gulbrandsen finds it frightening that boaters think they can manage in this way in outback and protected areas. – The geology is damaged and it creates the impression that this is okay to do. It is not, she emphasizes. Raet National Park is a protected marine natural area that stretches from Grimstad to Tvedestrand. Park manager Jenny Marie Gulbrandsen checks the area where boaters have made mooring holes in the preserved nature. Photo: Vetle Hjortland / news Risks heavy fines Last year, a case was reported to the Norwegian Environment Agency. – It resulted in a proposal of NOK 15–16,000, for two bolts. I hope we can get a similar case here, otherwise there will be a report to the police, says Gulbrandsen. She says that it is difficult to follow up the illegalities with sanctions, because the boat owners often quickly move on along the coast. The national park manager encourages the public to take a picture of the registration number on the boat, if they see someone putting down bolts in an illegal place. – How do you want boat owners to moor their boats in the archipelago? – Boat owners must use mobile rock wedges that they can drive into cracks and rocks. If you have a larger boat, you must find another port. The outer archipelago is not designed to moor large, powerful boats in stormy weather, she says. Now national park manager Jenny Marie Gulbransen is taking the case from Flosta in Arendal on to the national park board and the police. These are some of the eyebolts that the landowner has cut off the rocky outcrops along the coast. Photo: Vetle Hjortland / news



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