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A Critical Moment For Our Oceans

This June is a once-in-a-decade chance for the Australian Government to fix our marine parks by turning them into fully protected, no-take sanctuaries for our ocean life.

Your donation can help make marine parks truly safe for ocean wildlife

Our campaigning vessel, the Oceania and crew will be documenting what’s happening inside our marine parks. On a mission to capture clear, undeniable evidence of industrial fishing where it shouldn’t be allowed. Using underwater cameras, drones and on-the-ground investigation, we can make that evidence impossible to ignore.

It’s your support that makes this possible.

You can help Greenpeace to demand the creation of more fully protected, no take sanctuaries for our ocean life in our marine parks.

Greenpeace activists on rhibs
Elle Lawless - Senior Oceans Campaigner

With the momentum of the Global Ocean Treaty and the opportunity to strengthen Australia’s Marine Parks, this is a rare moment we must seize. The Australian Government has the chance to make history and secure the future of our oceans for generations to come.
~ Elle Lawless, Senior Campaigner

Bottom trawling and longlining are tearing our marine parks apart

Marine Parks are meant to be protected waters where marine life can feed, migrate and recover. But here’s the catch: in many of these so-called protected waters, industrial fishing is still allowed. And with it comes destructive practices like bottom trawling and longlining.

The following images show what we have documented on previous voyages to expose industrial fishing. It's devastating the ocean worldwide, including inside our marine parks.

Bottom-Trawling-GP03QF8
Exposed

Bottom trawling is devastating Australia's marine parks

Destructive bottom trawling is devastating deep sea ecosystems in our marine parks. A staggering amount of marine life, including sharks and dolphins, is hauled up as bycatch, and then discarded overboard, dead or injured.

This brutal fishing method causes irreparable damage. Bottom trawlers bulldoze the seafloor with weighted nets, deforesting our underwater forests; a cruel, indiscriminate and inefficient way to fish. Loved and endangered wildlife like turtles, seals and seabirds fall victim to industrial fishing in places where they should be safe. We need your help to save them.

 

Bottom-Trawling-GP03QF8
Exposed

Longlining is devastating Australia's marine parks

Longline fishing is one of the most deadly and wasteful ways to fish. Around 35% of what longliners catch is unwanted. That’s precious marine life, like sharks and turtles, thrown back into the sea, some dead or injured.

Hundreds of kilometres of lines drift in the ocean with thousands of deadly baited hooks killing ocean wildlife in our marine parks on a massive scale.

Make a tax-deductible donation today to help get industrial fishing out of Australia's marine parks.

What’s at risk?

Australia’s marine parks are meant to be safe havens for ocean wildlife. But in many of these protected areas, harmful industrial fishing practices are still allowed.

That's why we are gearing up to set sail on the Oceania, to help bring to light what's happening in places that should be protected. We can’t predict exactly what we’ll find. The ocean doesn’t work that way. However, here are some of the animals we may encounter. They're among the most vulnerable to industrial fishing.

  • Shortfin Mako Shark
    Shortfin mako sharks are among the most commonly caught non-target species by industrial longlining fishing, often hooked on baited lines and unable to break free. With slow growth and a low reproduction rate, industrial fishing is an existential threat to the mako shark.
  • Leatherback Turtle
    Pacific Leatherback Turtles are being driven to extinction, caught as bycatch by longliners that lay silent traps that stretch for kilometres, lined with thousands of baited hooks. Turtles mistake hooks for food. 
  • Fur Seal

    Australian fur seals are highly social animals that rely on rich feeding grounds to hunt and raise their young.

    These same areas overlap with industrial fishing, where nets and lines increase the risk of entanglement and disrupt their ability to feed and survive.

  • Blue Shark
    Blue sharks are one of the ocean’s great travellers, they are built for life on the move. But their wide-ranging nature also puts them directly in the path of industrial fishing. Hundreds of thousands are caught each year on longlines, as bycatch, and many do not survive.

By using our powerful investigative capabilities, we can help uncover what's really happening inside Australia’s marine parks and what is truly at stake.

Greenpeace conducting ocean research
AUTHOR ELLE LAWLESS, SENIOR CAMPAIGNER
TOPIC AUSTRALIAN MARINE PARKS
DATE MAY 2026

We’re exposing the reality of marine parks

We're sailing up the east coast to expose the reality of industrial fishing in hotspots that allow bottom trawling like Jervis Bay Marine Park, Hunter Marine Park and Solitary Islands Marine Park.

More than half of Australia's marine parks allow industrial fishing like longlining and bottom trawling. We know industrial fishers pillage Australia's marine parks, and it's our mission with Oceania to capture clear, independent evidence of the damage it's causing and the wildlife and ecosystems at risk.

Using underwater cameras, drones and front-line investigation, we will reveal what's being hidden and build pressure that governments cannot ignore.

Your support is what sends our crew to sea, brings the truth to light and makes change possible. 

Dr. Olaf Meynecke

Dr. Olaf Meynecke. Marine Scientist, CEO and Founder of Humpbacks & High-Rises. Masters in Environmental Sciences, PhD in Marine Ecology

Q&A with Dr. Olaf Meynecke

There’s a common misconception that marine parks are fully protected areas. In reality, they’re made up of different zones with varying levels of protection, and a majority allow some form of fishing. This can include industrial fishing, where operators go to hotspots, put the nets and lines out and catch pretty much everything, regardless of the intended target. 

With large-scale fishing, operators are able to locate dense areas of ocean life and remove huge numbers at once. These are often places where species gather to feed or breed, so the impact is immediate and widespread. Some species, particularly those that live longer and reproduce more slowly, are far less able to recover from this kind of pressure. If too many are removed, populations can decline rapidly and take decades to recover, if they recover at all. 

The Global Ocean Treaty to protect 30% of the world's oceans brings governments together and drives action. In Australia, we need to reassess whether current marine parks are actually fit for purpose. From a conservation perspective, a marine park should only be considered fully protected if the removal of marine life is prohibited. This means no resource extraction, including no industrial fishing or removal of ocean wildlife. 

Scientists like me are already working to turn evidence into change — advising governments, attending international forums, and pushing for ocean protection at every level. But organisations like Greenpeace can carry that work further, amplifying our findings across more regions, bringing it to the public, and pushing decision-makers to act. Together we create change, combining hard evidence with the kind of public pressure that governments cannot ignore.

We have no choice; the ocean is the source of all life. Every bit of support helps create the evidence that drives real change in how our marine parks are protected.

Dr. Olaf Meynecke

Dr. Olaf Meynecke. Marine Scientist, CEO and Founder of Humpbacks & High-Rises. Masters in Environmental Sciences, PhD in Marine Ecology

Did You Know:

10 marine parks covering almost 13 million hectares of Australia's most sensitive ocean habitats are open to harmful industrial fishing practices

This June is a critical moment for our oceans

The historic Global Ocean Treaty win has set a clear goal: to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030. Make a tax-deductible donation today to push our government to get industrial fishing out of Australia's marine parks.

Shark Bycatch

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