With climate change and pollution getting worse, and new threats like seabed mining on the horizon, our oceans urgently need help.
As part of our work to protect the oceans, in April we launched a 10-month Pole to Pole expedition from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Scientists and Greenpeace campaigners on board the ship have teamed up to research the threats of climate change, overfishing, plastic pollution, deep sea mining and oil drilling.
The first images from the expedition are featured below, take a look.
The Arctic Sunrise is pictured mooring at the ice in Tempelfjorden on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago, between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
A walrus relaxes atop an ice floe near Sjettebreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway.A Northern Fulmar is flying over ice floes. As part of the expedition Greenpeace is sailing to the Arctic ice edge in Fram Strait, between Svalbard and Greenland, to collect various samples and measure the snow and ice thickness. A critically endangered hawksbill turtle – named for its narrow head and hawk-like beak – swims over the coral gardens at Kanawa Island near Flores, Indonesia. The island is located in the Komodo National Park.A crab was trapped inside a discarded Zagu milktea cup in Verde Island Passage, the Philippines – the epicenter of global marine biodiversity.Manta rays – which are believed to live upto 50 years of age – are seen in the cold upwellings off Nusa Penida Island, Bali, Indonesia, where an increasing amount of single use plastics are swept along the coast.A coral reef in Raja Ampat, Papua, Indonesia. Greenpeace is in Indonesia to document one of the world’s most biodiverse – and threatened – environments and to call for urgent action to ensure that the country’s oceans and forests are protected.A small wrasse swims by a packet of Colgate toothpaste in Verde Island Passage, Philippines. Daily, 163 million sachets produced by the biggest FMCG companies are left polluting the environment in the Philippines.Humpback whales enjoy the warm waters of the Pacific ocean, Tonga.
Today, on World Oceans Day, people around the world are supporting Greenpeace’s global call to protect the world’s oceans. Over the next year, alongside half a million people from around the world, we’re calling for the most ambitious ocean protection yet – a third of the world’s oceans in sanctuaries by 2030.
Scientists tell us that if we can protect a third of our oceans beyond national borders in the next decade, they can recover and thrive. But we have to act now, and we have to act together. Sign the petition and join the campaign here: https://act.gp/2I1ysrt
