For World Oceans Day, Greenpeace UK launched “Operation Ocean Witness” and is urging the UK government to “get ocean protection done”.

A six month operation, involving new Greenpeace ship Sea Beaver, will patrol the UK’s protected areas off the south coast of England and “do what the government has so far failed to do” – protect the UK’s marine protected areas from destructive fishing, a key Brexit promise which has been broken.  Operation Ocean Witness will operate out of Newhaven from June until Autumn 2021.  More photos and video here.

The Greenpeace announcement coincides with environmental pressure group Oceana also calling for urgent action by UK Government to end bottom trawling in Britain’s MPAs and revealing that bottom trawlers spent 68,000 hours fishing in UK protected areas set up specifically to protect the seabed in 2020.  Click here.

“These shocking figures make clear that the UK’s supposedly ‘world-leading’ network of marine protected areas aren’t fit for purpose. What’s the point in saying an area of seabed is protected when bottom trawlers can plough the seabed there for thousands of hours each year? The UK government needs to turn words into action and level up ocean protection by fully banning bottom trawling in all of the UK’s protected areas.”

“Operation Ocean Witness intends to document and expose destructive fishing practices still permitted by the government in UK protected areas. It also plans to document the beauty and biodiversity of the UK’s seas, and engage with fishing communities along the south coast to build a movement for a fairer, more sustainable future for the UK’s seas.”

See also Greenpeace to patrol UK waters in campaign to prevent destructive fishing in protected areas in The Independent (paywall).

Elsewhere, Oceana draws attention to the important theme of lives and livelihoods. “Billions of people are inextricably linked to the ocean, such as artisanal fishers with generational knowledge of how to manage fisheries without depleting them; the seafood processers and vendors (many of whom are women) who help feed the world and their families; tourism workers in small island nations who depend on vibrant, abundant oceans to keep visitors coming back” and profiles five fishers that “prove harmony can exist between people and the oceans”.