The Arctic Sunrise, one ship in the Greenpeace fleet, will dock at the V&A Waterfront on 17 October. The ship will berth in Cape Town until 20 October, after which it will embark on a three-week voyage to Seamount Vema. The expedition aims to document local biodiversity and to recover the abandoned fishing gear that threatens it.
The ship recently stopped in Dakar, Senegal to create a platform for political engagement around overfishing in the region. Overfishing has taken a harsh toll on Senegalese fishing communities. Often, artisanal fishermen have been forced further and further out to sea to fish while fish populations suffer and dwindle due to overfishing. As a result, many of them are indefinitely lost at sea.
The Arctic Sunrise, along with other ships in the fleet, is contributing to Greenpeace’s Pole-to-Pole ship tour, aimed at rallying support for a Global Oceans Treaty which will see 30% of the world’s oceans become protected by 2030 under the UN.
In addition to political stakeholders, the Arctic Sunrise will engage with African student groups around the supercharging the African Climate Strike movement. The ship will also host local communities impacted by industrial overfishing and climate impacts at a storytelling event.
The ship will be open to the public all day on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 November (Jetty 2 at the V&A Waterfront)
Here is a link to the Greenpeace documentary on the state of Kalk Bay’s marine life:
