World Ocean Day: storytelling in service of the sea

World Ocean Day is a call to remember our belonging. A moment to honour the blue spaces that sustain all life on earth. It’s not a single day of awareness. It’s an invitation to act, create, connect and protect. In rhythm with the tides that shape us.

This year, I mark World Ocean Day with a full heart – and a full calendar. As President of the Board of Trustees at Whale Wise, I’m proud to stand beside an organisation working at the intersection of science, community and conservation. We’re reimagining how we protect the ocean, how we listen to whales and how we make decisions with care, not just data. On this day, I’m inviting you to deepen your relationship with the sea. Through curiosity, through art, and through ongoing support.

The ocean is still largely unknown, but deeply threatened

Despite covering over 70% of the planet’s surface, the ocean remains one of the least explored ecosystems on Earth. A recent study revealed that over 99% of the deep ocean floor remains unmapped and unseen by human eyes (New York Post, May 2025).

At the same time, the impacts of human activity from plastic pollution to deep-sea mining and overfishing are reaching even the most remote marine zones.

The ocean absorbs around 90% of excess heat from climate change and generates over 50% of the oxygen we breathe. Yet is often left out of climate conversations (UNESCO, 2024). Advocacy, education and storytelling are essential if we are to bring the ocean’s needs into the centre of environmental action.

Chairing a conversation that matters

To honour this day, I’m chairing a special event at The Margate Bookshop. Hosting marine biologist and author Helen Scales as she shares her powerful new book What the Wild Sea Can Be – shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. This lyrical and deeply honest work explores what it means to hold both hope and heartbreak for the ocean. It’s a book born from lived experience. From travelling by sea rather than sky, and from encounters in Shetland that shaped a more nuanced vision for the future.

Helen writes not from abstraction but immersion. And her book, like the sea itself, carries both warning and wonder. I’m honoured to hold space for this conversation – one that invites both fierce realism and collective possibility.

Click here to book tickets.

From image to impact

My own work sits at the edge of art and advocacy. Through photography, I share stories from the wild edges. Beneath the surface, beyond the frame, with the hope that they stir something in us. That they awaken not just awe, but action.

10% of profits from of every print sold from my shop supports Whale Wise, and on days like today, I reflect deeply on how every image can ripple beyond the moment it was made. Photography is not just for beauty – it’s a vessel for change. From bioluminescent waters in the Hebrides to the whale fluke of Bird, the entangled whale we helped to rescue, each piece in the shop holds a story of entanglement and emergence.

If you’re looking for a way to support marine conservation while bringing the wild ocean into your home, you can do both. Browse the Print Shop here and know that every purchase helps fuel purpose-led work.

ISLANDNESS: an exhibition of thresholds

The ocean is dynamic. It moves, changes, erodes and rebuilds. My latest exhibition, ISLANDNESS, held at National Trust’s Scotney Castle, explores the liminal places where earth, sea and sky meet – and what we discover when we linger in those wild thresholds.

The exhibition weaves together stories of seabirds, kelp forests, climate shifts and unseen marine life within arm’s reach of UK shores. It reflects the emotional tension between isolation and connection, between fragility and resilience. ISLANDNESS is rooted in the belief that storytelling is not passive awareness – it sparks awakened action.

Through video, image and sound, the exhibition invites us to feel. To witness. To respond.

Visit until Fri 17th October – More info here.

The ocean’s role in climate and blue carbon

The ocean is not just a backdrop for beauty or biodiversity, it’s a vital climate ally. Often overlooked in climate conversations, blue carbon refers to the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems like seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangroves. These habitats sequester carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, yet they’re among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet.

In Scotland, pioneering restoration work is underway through organisations like Seawilding. Who are replanting seagrass meadows and rebuilding native oyster beds to restore ecosystem function and support coastal communities.

These projects don’t just absorb carbon – they offer habitat, shelter and food for a huge range of marine life

I recently had the joy of snorkelling over one of these restored seagrass beds in the most perfect conditions, read more here. Calm water, amazing light and a thriving underwater meadow swaying with the tide. What struck me most was the abundance of snakelock anemones, their luminous green tentacles dancing in the current, each one a small miracle. It was like swimming through a breath. The whole ecosystem alive, pulsing, holding carbon and life in equal measure.

Seagrass meadows like these are a reminder that climate action is not just about emissions – it’s about relationship. It’s about restoring what has been lost, and protecting what’s left, so that the ocean can continue to breathe for all of us.

Become a Friend of Whale Wise

If you’re moved by this work, I invite you to become a Friend of Whale Wise. With a regular donation – monthly or annually – you become part of a growing community of ocean allies. Your support enables vital research, rescue response, education programmes and collaborative conservation work in Iceland, the UK and beyond.

This isn’t about charity. It’s about shared responsibility. It’s about saying yes to a future where whales are heard, ecosystems are protected, and the ocean is treated not as a resource but as a living relation.

David Attenborough’s new documentary ‘Ocean’ launches on UK TV

A new documentary titled Ocean, narrated by David Attenborough, also launches on World Ocean Day on National Geographic and Disney+. The documentary highlights both the fragility and resilience of our seas — from the deep ocean floor to coastal kelp forests, from great whale migrations to the smallest plankton blooms.

As Attenborough said in a recent interview, “Understanding the ocean is not optional. It is essential to the survival of our species.” (National Geographic, 2025)

Being able to watch this today feels like a collective moment of remembrance and responsibility. It reminds us that the ocean doesn’t need saving as much as it needs space to recover, and that we all have a role in that story.

On this World Ocean Day, let us move beyond slogans and step into relationship. The ocean doesn’t need saving. It needs space to thrive, and people who will listen. Through science, art, activism and generosity, we can become part of that tide.

And join us on World Ocean Day – Sun 8 June at The Margate Bookshop to hear from Helen Scales and imagine what the wild sea can still become!