People painted blue created human waves across 23 countries to call for the protection of our seas, supported by public figures, including Helen Mirren and Javier Bardem, who voiced their support for the oceans today. From Santiago to Bangkok, London to Johannesburg, the peaceful protestors are calling on governments negotiating at the United Nations towards a Global Ocean Treaty that could pave the way for the creation of a network of ocean sanctuaries covering 30% of international waters by 2030.[1]

On the steps of Rome’s Colosseum, people performed a human wave, while a sea of blue people flooded into the streets of Dakar. In Istanbul, children gathered by the water to send their message for ocean protection. From the Wat Suthat temple in Bangkok to the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca, people got together to ask for ocean sanctuaries.

A purse seine vessel with a whale shark caught as bycatch in the Pacific. Whale sharks, being slow swimming filter feeding fish, act as natural aggregation devices for tuna in tropical oceans and are killed in unsustainable numbers in purse seine fisheries. The vessels either set their nets on these creatures to catch the surrounding tuna or the whale sharks are caught in nets around fish aggregation devices (FADs) that attract these magnificent creatures as well as other sharks, turtles and juvenile tuna as well as the targeted adult tuna species.

Today our oceans also received the support of public figures from all over the world, using their voices to amplify this global movement of people that want to see a network of ocean sanctuaries covering our blue planet. The list of Ocean Ambassadors [2] includes the Spanish Oscar winner Javier Bardem, Chinese actor Li Yifeng, and also Chinese musician Tan WeiWei and British actress and Oscar winner Helen Mirren, who said: “Overfishing, climate change, mining and plastic pollution – our oceans are struggling. But now we have a chance to turn things around.”

Frida Bengtsson of Greenpeace’s Protect the Oceans campaign said: “Our oceans are facing an acute crisis that needs profound, solution-oriented action and the political will to drive real change. Governments around the world should know that they are under massive public scrutiny as they negotiate a Global Ocean Treaty at the United Nations.”

“People everywhere are asking their leaders to protect marine life, like whales and turtles, to ensure food security for millions of people, and to create healthy oceans that are our best ally against a changing climate.”

For more information about Greenpeace visit their website by clicking here.