South Asia celebrates World Ocean Day

Greenpeace South Asia marked World Oceans Day 2025 with a celebration at Gintota Beach in Galle, where a stunning gathering of kayaks featuring a majestic turtle took center stage to highlight the critical role the ocean plays in sustaining biodiversity, regulating the climate, and supporting coastal communities. 

The action also comes in solidarity with the Kerala population and the urgent need for transparency, cleanup and accountability in response to the late shipwreck accident and its ongoing consequences.

This year, World Ocean Day precedes the opening of the United Ocean Conference, from 9th to 13th June in France, where world leaders will convene to discuss their commitments for the protection of the global ocean. 

In the meantime, the dramatic impacts of the recent MSC ELSA 3 shipwreck offshore Kerala (on May 25th) keep unfolding with fuel and hazardous cargo threats looming at sea, while broken containers of unknown cargo and insane amounts of plastic pellets have been washing ashore in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India — amid monsoon weather conditions impeding initial environmental assessment and clean-up initiatives. 

Just 4 years after the X-Press Pearl disaster in Sri Lanka, the region’s marine life, unique coastal ecosystems, and fisher communities are facing yet another shipping disaster with lasting consequences, of which the scale remains to be fully understood.

“What exactly was in the containers, and who will be held accountable for the damage to marine biodiversity and fragile ocean ecosystems, as well as the loss of coastal livelihoods and the harm to the local economy ?” said ocean conservationist and founder of Friends of Marine Life, Robert Panipilla. 

“We are calling on local authorities and the MSC company to release the full cargo manifest of the MSC ELSA 3. The people in South India have the right to know and expect a detailed statement on the circumstances of the accident, as well as a comprehensive clean-up and compensation plan from MSC, who have not yet communicated two weeks after the shipwreck,” added Amruta s Nair, Campaigner at Greenpeace India.