European External Action Service

09/18/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/18/2021 01:57

#EUBeachCleanup: Together to protect marine life

Every year, millions of tons of litter end up in the ocean with a direct and deadly effect on wildlife from seabirds to whales, fish to invertebrates. Marine pollution starts on land and is one of the main drivers of the depletion of marine biodiversity. This is why since 2017 the EU has organised the annual #EUBeachCleanup campaign, making a strong call to action to protect the ocean at a global level, in both landlocked and coastal areas.

'Our actions impact our oceans. It's our choice: either we continue polluting our ocean with marine litter, or we take action and clean our seas. #EUBeachCleanup is a great individual and collective action of volunteers around the world to keep beaches clean and protect marine life. It's needed, it's urgent, everyone can contribute to restoring our planet.'

- High Representative/Vice-President, Josep Borrell

'Restoring biodiversity, protecting the ocean and empowering citizens are all high on the EU's agenda. The true power of #EUBeachCleanup is that it brings all these together and gains worldwide attention. It's about walking the talk and turning the European Green Deal into global blue action. Join us. Together, we can make a difference.'

- Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius

#EUBeachCleanup is a global awareness-raising campaign set to boost concrete actions for the protection of the oceans. This year the campaign is focused on the protection of marine biodiversity with the theme, 'Together to protect marine life', in line with the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15).

For the 2021 edition of the #EUBeachCleanup campaign, the EU joined forces with ActNow, the United Nation's campaign for individual action on climate change and sustainability. Participants have been joining the movement not only on physical events but also via the ActNow app, where they have been creating teams and sharing the number of bags of litter collected.

This weekend in particular, to mark World Coastal Clean-up day, several countries across the globe are taking part in clean-up initiatives that have been taking place since June. Let's take a tour around the world to get a closer look at some of the events!

Kazakhstan

New Zealand

Indonesia

Ecuador

New York

Tanzania

Mauritius

Russia

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Angola

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And more to come...

Ghana

For this year's special edition of the #EUBeachCleanup campaign, we also went to the Belgian coast to follow the story of Simba the baby seal who was found lying on the beach with a plastic ring around its neck. Watch Simba's story.

Simba's story ends happily as he is rescued and healed and set free, back into the ocean, but unfortunately this is not the case for many sea animals. In Singapore, Raphaël Mang, took a deep dive underwater to explore what lies beneath. While admiring the colourful sea slugs and beautiful seahorses, he came across the sad sight of fish and crabs trapped in plastic wires and other litter from forks to ghost nets… Watch Raphaël's story.