SYDNEY, Wednesday 7 May 2025 – Following the premiere of Sir David Attenborough’s latest documentary Ocean, Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on the new Australian government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty within its first 100 days in power.
Ocean exposes the brutal realities of the global ocean under threat from industrial and destructive fishing like longlining and bottom trawling. At the end of the film, Sir Attenborough encourages world leaders to propose global ocean sanctuaries at the UN Ocean Conference in June, which can only be done once 60 nations ratify the Global Ocean Treaty. Australia signed the treaty in 2023, but has yet to bring it into force.
From the premiere in Sydney, Georgia Whitaker, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “It’s difficult to watch Ocean without feeling emotional about the state of the world’s ocean, but through the Global Ocean Treaty, there is hope. The film sets the stage for the new Labor government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty in the first 100 days in power.
“Australians love the ocean, and the election showed Australians are voting for a nature-forward agenda for our country. With the UN Ocean Conference fast approaching, Australia has the opportunity to show leadership on the world stage and protect the open ocean by finally ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty, which they agreed to in 2023.
“The ocean is under attack from all angles – from global heating, industrial fishing, and the Trump government opening the seabed to deep sea mining. Every day without protection, the open ocean and all the life it supports faces catastrophic collapse. But humanity can heal the ocean; world governments have the tools in the treaty, they just need to bring it into force.”
In the Tasman Sea between Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand, longlining is the most prevalent industrial fishing method; longliners come from around the world to plunder the abundant open ocean of the Tasman Sea, catching and killing countless innocent animals like sharks, turtles and seabirds each year.
The premiere comes as the first Australian government-supported science symposium to understand the importance of the high seas of the South Tasman Sea and Lord Howe Rise area comes to a close.
The South Tasman Sea and Lord Howe Rise of the Tasman Sea is an area of special biological significance identified by the UN – and must be one of the first places protected as part of 30 by 30, the move to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030.
—ENDS—
