In Pictures: Fighting Plastic Pollution on World Oceans Day!
The focus for this year’s World Ocean Day is preventing plastic pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean. Plastic pollution is one of the greatest threats to the health of our oceans, choking and entangling marine wildlife.
These pictures are a sad testament of the problems caused by the tonnes of plastic waste that find their way into our seas every year.
If you’re inspired to take action – sign the petition calling for supermarkets to reduce the amount of plastic they produce.
The Elphinston Reef is near Marsa Alam in Egypt and is known as the ‘Ras Mohammed of the South’. It is a spectacular reef and one of the most beautiful sites in the region. Crystal clear waters and unique coral reefs have made the Red Sea one of the world’s prime diving destinations., yet these reefs are threatened by problems such as pollution and overfishing.
A Northern gannet has its head entangled with a six-pack ring in Portugal.
A bird flies over water that is polluted with plastic waste in Manila.
Greenpeace and members of the #breakfreefromplastic movement continue the beach cleanup and brand audit in Freedom Island, Parañaque City. The activity aims to name the companies most responsible for the plastic pollution on our beaches.
Greenpeace and the #breakfreefromplastic coalition clean up beaches on Freedom Island, Parañaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Freedom island is an ecotourism area which contains a mangrove forest and swamps providing a habitat for many migratory bird species from different countries such as China, Japan and Siberia.
Blue Footed Bobbies are sitting in between plastic waste on the beach (Sula nebouxii). Isla Lobos de Tierra, Peru.
Plastic pollution is pictured along the coast of Wadi El Gamal national park, Marsa Alam, Egypt.
A Hawksbill turtle feeds on a piece of plastic near the reef Big Gota in the southern Egyptian Red Sea.
Greenpeace volunteers place labels on supermarket shelves to call on major retailers to ditch throwaway plastic packaging and start reducing their plastic footprint.
This underwater image shows plastic waste in a coral reef on Abd al Kuri, a rocky island in the Indian Ocean.
A plastic bottle floats in the sea in the Firth of Forth, Scotland. Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the oceans every year.
A Rissos dolphin is entangled in a fishing line and plastic bags in the Indian Ocean.
Piles of garbage are found on the beach of Gan Island of the Addu-Atoll, Maldives. Plastics, packaging and textiles make up a large part of the rubbish.
A dead fish is pictured next to single-use plastics belonging to the world’s largest corporations. Greenpeace is asking that they reduce their production of single-use plastics.
Greenpeace Mexico activists create a big sand sculpture depicting a sea turtle to highlight the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans.
