Centuries-Old Shipwrecks Threatened by Dredging in Treacherous Goodwin Sands

As of 2025-08-18T18:42:11+00:00, the Goodwin Sands off the coast of Kent, England have become a major point of contention. Over the centuries, this treacherous sandbank has entombed more than 2,000 shipwrecks, dozens of World War II aircraft, and thousands of final resting places. Shakespeare himself described it as a "very dangerous flat, and fatal."

Campaigners have now raised the alarm that this unique maritime and cultural heritage site is under threat from destructive dredging for building sand and aggregate. The Crown Estate, which owns the seabed, has so far refused to remove the Goodwin Sands from its list of potential marine aggregate extraction sites, despite the area being designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) since 2019.

The Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust has appealed directly to King Charles, as the head of the armed forces and a beneficiary of the Crown Estate's commercial activities, to intervene and encourage the Crown Estate to protect this historically significant area. However, the trust's efforts have been met with frustration, as a response from the palace merely referred them back to the Crown Estate.

Historians and experts, such as TV presenter Dan Snow, have expressed deep concern over the potential loss of the "extraordinary wrecks" and "magical subsea landscape" that the Goodwin Sands hold. They argue that every period of British history over the last 2,000 years has left a rich legacy in this area, making it a unique and irreplaceable part of the nation's maritime heritage.