Greenpeace ships hoisted their sails for an epic journey across the oceans, from the North Pole to the South Pole. During this year-long expedition, scientists and experts joined the crew to conduct crucial scientific research. They have also witnessed firsthand threats to the oceans, such as overfishing.
The oceans produce half of our oxygen and food for a billion people, and because they soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide, they’re also one of our best defences against climate change. Our fate is bound to the fate of our oceans. If they don’t make it, we don’t either.
Loggerhead turtle swimming around a fish aggregation device belonging to the Ecuadorean purse seiner ‘Ingalapagos’, in the vicinity of the northern Galapagos Islands.
A rescue plan for our oceans
Scientists have drawn up a rescue plan for our oceans – and we’re going to throw everything we’ve got at making it happen The ocean rescue plan is bold and simple: cover the planet in ocean sanctuaries, putting a third of the oceans off-limits to fishing, mining and other destructive industries.If the rescue plan goes ahead, it’ll be one of the biggest conservation efforts in human history, creating millions of square kilometres of new protected areas. Governments have started work on a UN Ocean Treaty and if they get it right it’ll give us the tools we need to make these sanctuaries happen.
A krill fishing vessel in the vicinity of Trinity Island.
The open oceans are some of the least studied – and least regulated – places on Earth, and to properly protect them we need to know more about what’s happening out there. A team of scientists, photographers and campaigners is set out on an epic journey from the North Pole to the South Pole to document a year in the life of our oceans and build the best possible case for a strong UN treaty. Sailing on Greenpeace’s swiftest and largest ship, the Esperanza, they’ll be conducting crucial ocean research and protection – exposing the threats, peacefully confronting the villains and championing the solutions.
The team at sea needs as many people as possible on land to make sure their findings can’t be ignored.
Aerial view over two walruses on an ice floe in front of Kvitøya (White Island) in the Svalbard Archipelago.
All over the world, wherever a proper ocean sanctuary is created, the results are dramatic. Habitats recover. The fish come back. Life finds a way. But because sanctuaries work so well, the people who profit from dumping and plundering our seas are working hard to water down the treaty.
From stopping Shell’s oil drilling in the Arctic, to getting the world’s largest tuna company to clean up its act for people and the planet, Greenpeace know how to stand up for our seas – and win.
