Travel down the Thames and celebrate World Oceans Day at the National Maritime Museum.

The National Maritime Museum is home to hundreds of years of seafaring history, from the vast Pacific to the icy Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. But our relationship to the sea is changing. World Oceans Day is your chance to dive into the past, present and future of our blue planet.

The 2023 event is now over, but we'll be returning to the sea in 2024. Until then, take a look at all the other ways you can explore our ocean at the National Maritime Museum.

World Oceans Day takes place on 8 June every year as 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.

Yet even as we celebrate our oceans, we also need to recognize the negative impacts we are having on our rivers, lakes and seas. 

Over-fishing, greenhouse gas emissions, chemical and noise pollution, ocean mining, plastic pollution and transportation all threaten the future of our oceans, but too often these issues are out of sight and out of mind. This World Oceans Day, we want to challenge this ‘sea blindness’, and shine a light on what can be done to protect our marine environments. 

Royal Museums Greenwich is working with several scientific organisations, conservation and community groups to produce free workshops, talks and performances at the National Maritime Museum suitable for all ages. Our annual celebrations take place every year in June, with a host of additional activities, resources and features also available online.

Main photo By David Troeger on Unsplash