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January 13, 2026

What is on the ocean horizon in 2026?

2025 was a year of making waves for Oceana UK, from the depths of our seas, to the corridors of power in Westminster.  The team helped protect 53,000 km2 of UK seas from destructive bottom trawling and are on the cusp of delivering another 30,000 km2 this year. Combined, that’s an area of seabed larger than Scotland’s entire landmass. Protected wildlife havens that can bring our seas back to life.

In a landmark decision at the end of the year, the UK government also announced a ban on all new oil and gas licences in our seas, to be enshrined in law. This is a huge win for our climate and ocean, and a direct result of relentless campaigning.

We’re in a decade where even more decisive action is essential. A decade when we must see our leaders’ promises accelerate into action, implementation, and enforcement that deliver thriving seas, a stable climate, and booming coastal communities.

I hope that all politicians, policymakers, and business leaders have realised that a healthy ocean isn’t a luxury; it’s crucial to all our wellbeing and the prosperity of our society. A life support system for all that we do.

Together, we have a lot more work to do. Protecting at least 30% of our wild seas by 2030. Ending the devastating impact of industrial overfishing. Stopping plastic pollution. Ensuring Big Oil doesn’t continue to wreck our home planet. And more.

We must redouble our efforts and urge our leaders to act.

I do see hopeful signs. The High Seas Treaty coming into force; the growing resistance to deep sea mining; the end of new oil exploration in the UK. This is alongside the growth in affordable, clean, renewable energy and action to ban destructive industries from marine protected areas.

The High Seas Treaty will create a legal framework for setting up protected areas in the high seas. A vital step that can stop destructive industrial activity and enable countries to share the benefits of resources in a sustainable and managed way.

This, coupled with more action at a country level, in national waters, to truly manage marine protected areas and drive ocean restoration efforts should help the world take leaps and bounds towards healthy, resilient, and sustainable seas. These are the keystone to delivering on ambitions to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030.

We’ll also see the Our Ocean Conference take place in Africa for the first time, in Kenya in June. This conference will be another critical step in global progress towards ambitions to protect our seas and support local coastal communities who work in harmony with nature.

Oceana teams around the world continue to deliver major campaign progress and policy wins to protect the ocean and safeguard coastal livelihoods, from the Philippines to Chile. Tangible, meaningful and measurable changes, which will deliver generational improvements for our seas.

We have everything to play for in protecting our seas, and it will take us all to continue to shift the dial in the right direction for people and planet.