World Ocean Day

Celebrate our brilliant blue planet this World Ocean Day at the National Maritime Museum.

Meet ocean experts, enjoy live music and science shows, play games and get stuck into craft activities: we’ve got plenty to float your boat!

World Ocean Day at the National Maritime Museum is a free family festival held every year in June. Enjoy a jam-packed day of performances and activities, explore the galleries and play in Ocean Court, the largest space in the Museum and the place to connect with our watery world.

2026 line-up coming soon: keep an eye on this page for more details, and get ready to dive into our amazing ocean on Saturday 6 June.

World Ocean Day is a global event that takes place on 8 June every year. The day is a celebration of the ocean and our continuing reliance on it.

Over 70 per cent of our blue planet is covered in water, and more than half of all the oxygen we breathe comes from ocean plants. We rely on the ocean for food security, transportation, coastal defences and much more.

UNESCO's seven principles of ocean literacy help us to recognise the impact the ocean has on our lives, and the effect we have on the ocean:

1. Earth has one ocean with many features
2. The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth
3. The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate
4. The ocean makes Earth habitable
5. The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems
6. The ocean and humans are inextricably linked
7. The ocean is largely unexplored.