A bit of a behind the scenes of how the Seaspiracy Team works. Often times we get called into campaigns, from every corner of the world.
This was back in March, and something was up in Papua New Guinea. Fellow ocean activist and friend Bodhi Patil reached out to Helena, our head of comms, to get the word out on an ocean catastrophe that was unfolding with no clear explanation and a government trying to censor its own people…
“What makes this crisis especially alarming is not only its scale, but the wall of silence surrounding it. Environmental samples have been collected, yet the results have never been shared with the very communities bearing the consequences. Residents are left with no choice but to continue interacting with potentially toxic waters, unable to protect themselves or their families without access to basic information. This deliberate (or negligent) lack of transparency is a profound failure of public health governance, stripping affected people of their right to informed decision-making and exposing them to compounding harm”—Bodhi Patil
Since December 2025 coastal communities in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea are living through a public health emergency. Unexplainable mass marine die-offs of over 3,451 organisms across at least 15 species dying within just five days. At least 500 residents reporting respiratory issues, gastrointestinal illness, and unexplainable skin rashes after contact with the water or ingesting contaminated fish. Since then, a governmental cover-up lasting months.
“For communities whose survival, food security and cultural identity are inseperable from the sea, this is not merely an ecological event: it is an existential threat unfolding in real time.”—Bodhi Patil
Just imagine growing up in a coastal village in Papua New Guinea. Then imagine not being able to go for a swim as the ocean is so contaminated hundreds of dead fish are washing up ashore. The sea, once the playground of the village, turned into a toxic soup. What is going on? And why is this not front-page news? I guess, this is exactly why we like our job at Seaspiracy…We cover what nobody else covers…cover-ups.
So our role was simple: get the word out for phase one of the campaign: Mobilization. Bodhi, NGOs and scientists were working hard to provide the Kafkaf villagers (the first affected village—declared unfit for habitation in February) with immediate relief through a community fundraiser. The funds were used to provide clean drinking water, emergency food support, medical supplies and basic water testing tools to strengthen local monitoring capacity. So far the campaign has been a success! Our role? Make sure it reached as many people as possible!
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After the survival of the community was ensured, the campaign shifted towards understanding why the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority of PNG (the CEPA) hadn’t released the laboratory results. Scientists’ main suspicion tended towards chemical runoff from a palm oil plantation nearby. This theory was sort of confirmed only a few weeks ago when CEPA reluctantly released this statement:
“The findings point toward a complex environmental stress event involving degraded water quality, sedimentation, runoff, oxygen depletion, and localized contamination pressures affecting marine ecosystems and community health.”
The CEPAs ambiguous language “point towards” means that they don’t want to 100% confirm that there is a culprit… Another Independent analysis from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) spells out the issue more clearly and highlights “land-based industrial stressors, including impacts associated with oil palm activity and chemical runoff.”
After the success of phase one, we’re in touch with Bodhi and his team at the Inner Light Foundation to understand what phases two and three will be, and how the Seaspiracy Foundation can be of service.
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