Naked mermaids tangled in discarded trawler nets wash up on beach - Blog

A mass stranding of naked mermaids appeared to wash up on St Ives beach for the first day of the G7 Summit.

The mermaids, who are members of the Ocean Rebellion group, linked to Extinction Rebellion, wrapped themselves in discarded trawler nets to highlight the problems facing our seas.

Meanwhile a foghorn dinghy sounded a deafening alarm to wake up the delegates to the G7 Summit staying at the Tregenna Castle hotel. There were five long blasts, said to signal an alert of imminent collision, then an SOS signal to represent the death of our oceans and the need for the G7 heads of state to act.

World leaders are gathering for three days of talks at the Carbis Bay Hotel, hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and including US President Joe Biden.

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Sohpie Miller, of Ocean Rebellion, said: "Ocean Rebellion demands the G7 puts the ocean at the top of the agenda where it belongs.

"With fish stocks already 90 per cent depleted, humanity cannot continue industrial fishing. Beam trawling alone emits more carbon than all of global aviation.

"These environmentally devastating intensive fishing methods must end now. The seas are too valuable to destroy. Destroy them and we destroy ourselves.

Ocean Rebellion stage a theatrical action at first light on Friday, June 11, with a mass stranding of mermaids, tangled in discarded trawler nets, and washed up on a beach in St Ives near the G7 Summit venue. At 5.15am a foghorn dinghy sounded a deafening alarm, hoping to awaken 'the delegates at Tregenna Castle hotel from their apathetic dreams'.

"Ocean Rebellion calls for an emergency global ban on bottom trawling, on both biodiversity and climate grounds, by COP26.”

Rob Higgs, also of Ocean Rebellion, said: “Ocean Rebellion demands G7 governments tax shipping and aviation fuel to reflect the environmental damage they do. Emissions from shipping, aviation and land-based oil and gas are acidifying the oceans, causing cascading near-term and irreversible biodiversity collapse.

"The fuel tax must be used to furlough the fishing fleet until a full and open investigation of world fish stocks on carbon sequestration and biodiversity grounds is complete, with all fisher folk to receive full pay using the proceeds.

"The implicit subsidy of highly destructive fishing practices by not taxing fuel makes no sense. Further, blue carbon must be included in national greenhouse gas inventories.

"Blue carbon is carbon safely stored in marine sediments and in marine biodiversity, provided it is not bottom trawled or over-fished and released to over-heat the planet."

Clive Russel, of Ocean Rebellion, said: "It’s time for the G7 heads of state to get a grip. Bottom trawling alone represents 13 per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions.

"It’s a no-brainer to ban it globally—industrial scale vandalism like this has no place on a living planet."

Roc Sandford, of Ocean Rebellion, said: "It’s time for joined-up policy on the oceans from the G7.

"The seas are our lifeline, producing much of the oxygen we breathe and absorbing much of the carbon dioxide, released by burning oil and gas, which is turning the planet into a sauna.

"But over-fishing and toxins are killing the marine food web, disrupting oxygen production, and displacing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere where it accelerates runaway climate, nature and social breakdown.

"The G7 heads of state are playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives. They must make polluters pay what it takes to trigger the repair of the oceans. No more posturing and waffle—they must do whatever it takes."

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