AS THE SEA DIES WE DIE

At dawn today, on the first day of the G7 summit, Ocean Rebellion sounded the alarm to highlight the shocking state of the Ocean. A mass stranding of mermaids, tangled in discarded trawler nets, washed up on a beach near the gathering of the G7 heads of state. Our foghorn dinghy sounded a deafening alarm, awakening the delegates at Tregenna Castle hotel from their apathetic fossil fuelled dreams – 5 long blasts signalling an alert of imminent collision. Then the SOS signal, signalling the imminent death of the Ocean should the G7 heads of state fail in their high duty to act.

Sophie Miller of Ocean Rebellion says:
“Ocean Rebellion demands the G7 puts the ocean at the top of the agenda where it belongs. With fish stocks already 90% depleted, humanity cannot continue industrial fishing. Beam trawling alone emits more carbon than all of global aviation. These environmentally devastating intensive fishing methods must end NOW. The seas are too valuable to destroy. Destroy them, and we destroy ourselves. Ocean Rebellion calls for an emergency global ban on bottom trawling, on both biodiversity and climate grounds, by COP26.”

Rob Higgs of Ocean Rebellion adds:
“Ocean Rebellion demands G7 governments tax shipping and aviation fuel to reflect the environmental damage they do. Emissions from shipping, aviation and land-based oil and gas are acidifying the oceans, causing cascading near-term and irreversible biodiversity collapse. The fuel tax must be used to furlough the fishing fleet until a full and open investigation of world fish stocks on carbon sequestration and biodiversity grounds is complete, with all fisher folk to receive full pay using the proceeds. The implicit subsidy of highly destructive fishing practices by not taxing fuel makes no sense. Further, blue carbon must be included in national greenhouse gas inventories. Blue carbon is carbon safely stored in marine sediments and in marine biodiversity, provided it is not bottom trawled or over-fished and released to over-heat the planet.”

Clive Russell of Ocean Rebellion says:
“It’s time for the G7 heads of state to get a grip. Bottom trawling alone represents 13% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a no-brainer to ban it globally—industrial scale vandalism like this has no place on a living planet.”

Roc Sandford of Ocean Rebellion adds:
“It’s time for joined-up policy on the oceans from the G7. The seas are our lifeline, producing much of the oxygen we breathe and absorbing much of the carbon dioxide, released by burning oil and gas, which is turning the planet into a sauna. But over-fishing and toxins are killing the marine food web, disrupting oxygen production, and displacing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere where it accelerates runaway climate, nature and social breakdown. The G7 heads of state are playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives. They must make polluters pay what it takes to trigger the repair of the oceans. No more posturing and waffle—they must do whatever it takes.”