Take Action for World Ocean Day

by Ella Garrud, Coastal Communities Officer

Every June 8th, people around the world celebrate World Ocean Day. It’s a day to appreciate the wonders of the ocean and the vital role it plays in our lives. Not only is it full of fascinating, intrinsically valuable life, but it also provides countless benefits for our health and wellbeing, from improving mental health through time spent by the sea, to mitigating climate change impacts by storing carbon and regulating global temperatures.

This year, World Ocean Day brings with it a powerful new film. Ocean with David Attenborough, released in cinemas in May, is now available to stream on Disney+ and National Geographic. The film is essential viewing, shedding light on one of the most destructive fishing practices — bottom trawling.

Bottom trawling involves dragging heavy nets and metal chains across the seabed, indiscriminately catching marine life while destroying delicate seafloor habitats. It’s a highly destructive, wasteful method of fishing, and shockingly, it’s still allowed in many Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which are meant to safeguard the most precious parts of our ocean.

The film makes a compelling case for large-scale, properly enforced ocean protection as a key solution for marine recovery. The evidence is clear: when we give nature the space to recover, it bounces back. The Sussex Kelp Recovery Project, of which Sussex Wildlife Trust is a leading partner, was founded on the removal of bottom trawling from the Sussex nearshore area, allowing the once dense Sussex kelp forests to recover. 

This year’s World Ocean Day theme is ‘Take Action’. So what can you do?

• Help us remove bottom trawling from Marine Protected Areas. Write to Minister for Water and Flooding Emma Hardy today and call for an end to this harmful practice where marine life is supposed to be protected.

• Make local change. From choosing sustainable transport options, picking up litter each time you visit the beach, to reducing single-use plastic in your daily life, every action counts.

World Ocean Day 2025 also coincides with the start of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, where Nations are gathering to forge a landmark global agreement – the ‘Nice Ocean Action Plan’, which is aimed at accelerating action to conserve and sustainably use the ocean. One of the objectives in the agreement is for Nations to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. This is an incredible opportunity to bring about real, global protection for the ocean. Our colleagues from The Wildlife Trusts are attending the conference and will be bringing us updates as the week progresses.

Together, we can protect and restore the ocean: for wildlife and for people. Let’s take action this World Ocean Day. As Sir David Attenborough states in Ocean: “If we save the sea, we save our world”.