The European commissioner for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries, Karmenu Vella, has launched a new programme calling on aquariums around the world to pull together in the fight against ocean debris, especially plastic waste.
Almost 100 aquariums have so far signed up to take part, helping raise visitor awareness and creating exhibitions to illustrate how plastic is destroying the marine environment and its wildlife.
“Aquariums are a TV screen to the ocean,” says Vella. “This campaign on marine litter is urgent and welcome. The world’s aquariums have decided to become the oceans’ ‘breaking news’ to avoid becoming its history channel.”
The campaign, World Aquariums Against Marine Litter, aims to educate visitors about the 10 million tonnes of litter that end up in the oceans annually, causing the deaths of millions of marine animals. Aquariums in Asia, Europe, and the Americas are getting involved in the project, which was organised by the European Union as part of the United Nation’s #CleanSeas campaign.
As well as showing visitors the dangers and consequences of plastic pollution, aquariums will also present solutions, such as a circular economy approach, and offer advice on what individuals can do to help.
“This summer, millions of visitors across the globe will visit an aquarium. To bring change we must show them the reality of plastic pollution,” Vella says.
The project was launched in July at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco and attended by Prince Albert II of Monaco, UN Environment Programme executive director Erik Solheim and World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) CEO Doug Cress.
The World Aquariums Against Marine Litter initiative is being held in the run up to the Our Ocean conference, which takes place in Malta on 5 and 6 October.
