Recovering the body of a dolphin killed by trawling in the English Channel
Around the world we are working to protect ocean ecosystems: by lobbying governments and corporations to ban destructive fishing methods; to create an international network of marine reserves; and to inform the public about what is happening by bearing witness to whaling and illegal fishing.
Marine reserves
The best solution to the immediate crisis facing the oceans is a network of global marine reserves to provide sanctuaries, free from fishing and extractive industries like oil, sand and gravel, where threatened species can gain some respite and begin to replenish themselves. We estimate that as much as 40 per cent of the high seas will need to be protected in this way, with a similar level of protection for continental shelf areas such as our own North Sea.
Sustainable seafood
Creating protected habitats will be a good start, but we also need to be much more selective about the fish we catch, and to ban the most destructive trawling methods. To achieve this we ran a successful campaign between 2005-7 to persuade UK supermarkets to only sell seafood fished in sustainable ways. At the start of 2008 we launched 'Seafood See Life', a new network bringing together influential chefs, restaurants and food writers to lobby for sustainablility even more strongly.
Ending whaling
Despite being protected by international agreements since 1986, whales are still threatened by the rogue activities of Japan, Iceland and Norway We want to strengthen current protection for whales by implementing a series of regional sanctuaries, which will act as stepping stones to a global whale sanctuary and a permanent end to all commercial whaling.
Climate change
As an international organisation, we campaign on several fronts - from researching and promoting solutions to climate change (like decentralised energy), to exposing the companies and governments which are refusing to change, to lobbying to change national and international policy, to bearing witness to the impacts of this unnecessary destruction.
