{"id":48968,"date":"2026-01-20T11:27:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/?p=48968"},"modified":"2026-01-20T11:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:33:28","slug":"st-leonards-on-sea-unveils-beachfront-mural-in-global-celebration-as-landmark-ocean-treaty-enters-into-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/st-leonards-on-sea-unveils-beachfront-mural-in-global-celebration-as-landmark-ocean-treaty-enters-into-force\/","title":{"rendered":"St Leonards-on-Sea unveils beachfront mural in global celebration as landmark Ocean Treaty enters into force"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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This weekend in St Leonards-On-Sea, East Sussex, a striking new mural will be unveiled to celebrate a landmark moment for global ocean protection: the High Seas Treaty coming into force.<\/p>

The colourful new artwork, twice the length of a double decker bus, is painted on the town\u2019s beachside Bathing Hut Cafe. It puts St Leonards-On-Sea on the map as part of a global Greenpeace action in which artists, Indigenous Peoples, activists, and local communities from 13 countries across five continents representing every ocean, have joined Greenpeace to create ocean-protection-inspired street art to mark this major moment. Together, they celebrate the hard-won victory of the Treaty following two decades of campaigning.\u00a0<\/p>

Officially coming into force on January 17, the Treaty is the most important global environmental agreement since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. It also marks the beginning of a crucial four-year countdown to protect 30% of the world\u2019s oceans by 2030. The Treaty gives governments the legal tools to protect large areas of the high seas for the first time. These will help mitigate the climate crisis, halt biodiversity collapse, and safeguard food security for the billions of people who depend on the ocean.<\/p>

The UK artwork, by Bristol-based artist, Richt, features a message in a bottle addressed to the UK government. It has sunk to the ocean floor, visible among a host of beautiful ocean creatures including a turtle, an angelfish and an oyster, the latter a symbol of hidden value and uncertainty. It\u2019s a call to action for the UK government to urgently complete signing the High Seas Treaty into law. 81 nations including France, Spain, China, Japan, Mexico and Brazil have already done so.\u00a0<\/p>

UK artist, Richt, said: <\/strong>
\u201cFor as long as I can remember, Greenpeace has amplified powerful campaigns alongside artists for the world\u2019s most pressing issues. When I was younger, my family instilled in us just how lucky we were to live by the sea. I remember people saying that to me all the time, and I think that proximity teaches a respect for the environment, the moors and the coastline.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m really proud to be a part of this long tradition for Greenpeace in support of the Global Ocean Treaty. The focus of the work is a message in a bottle, widely understood as an act of desperation and devotion; thrown into the sea in the hope of finding help before it\u2019s too late. Often, news about the environment is paired with the language of \u201clast chance\u201d. In the case of the Treaty, that last chance is being held up by red tape.\u201d<\/p>

Chris Thorne, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK said:<\/strong>
\u201cThe Oceans Treaty enables governments to protect large areas of the high seas for the first time. It fires the starting gun on a four-year race to protect 30 per cent of the world\u2019s oceans by 2030 – the minimum scientists say is needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, stabilise the climate and safeguard food security for billions of people.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cBut while communities around the world are celebrating, the UK government – yet to pass the Treaty into UK law – is holding us back. This powerful beachside mural by Richt captures both the hope and urgency of the moment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cA constellation of ocean sanctuaries where marine life, from colourful corals to majestic whales, can thrive is within reach. But we will only get there if the UK signs the Treaty into law and puts forward ambitious proposals to protect vast areas of the ocean, including the Sargasso Sea and other parts of the Atlantic. There\u2019s no time to waste.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

The mural will now be turned into a digital postcard for people to send directly to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, the UK minister responsible for the Treaty. This will ensure she hears the message loud and clear even if she cannot see the mural in person.<\/p>

Currently 0.9% of the High Seas<\/a> is fully or highly protected. Closing the High Seas protection gap from under 1% as it is currently, to 30% in just four years will require governments to protect areas of the ocean larger than entire continents faster than any conservation effort in history.<\/p>

Photographs of Richt\u2019s artwork in St Leonards and the other murals all around the world are available <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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This weekend in St Leonards-On-Sea, East Sussex, a striking new mural will be unveiled to celebrate a landmark moment for global ocean protection: the High Seas Treaty coming into force. The colourful new artwork, twice the length of a double decker bus, is painted on the town\u2019s beachside Bathing Hut Cafe. It puts St Leonards-On-Sea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":48969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[767],"tags":[],"directory-category":[],"event_categories":[],"class_list":["post-48968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 22:14:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48968"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48975,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48968\/revisions\/48975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48968"},{"taxonomy":"directory-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/directory-category?post=48968"},{"taxonomy":"event_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/eastbourne-wealden-lewes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_categories?post=48968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}