World Maritime Day 2025 – Our Obligation, Our Ocean, Our Opportunity
Each year, World Maritime Day provides a moment to reflect on the global maritime community’s responsibility to the oceans we depend upon. This year’s IMO theme feels especially timely.
At Waves Group, we have always believed that action matters more than words. For over two decades, our consultants have been investigating casualties, surveying wrecks, and helping clients respond to some of the world’s most challenging marine incidents. That experience revealed a clear truth:
The past is still polluting the present
Beneath the ocean’s surface lie thousands of legacy wrecks, sunken ships that continue to leak oil and hazardous substances into fragile ecosystems.
These are Potentially Polluting Wrecks (PPWs). Left unaddressed, they act as “time bombs” threatening not just marine life but also coastal communities, livelihoods, and cultural heritage.
Launching Project Tangaroa
Recognising this legacy risk, we launched Project Tangaroa, a global initiative to identify, assess, and mitigate the dangers posed by PPWs.
This ambitious programme is a collaboration with:
- Lloyd’s Register Foundation
- The Ocean Foundation
- International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
- IUCN
- Major Projects Foundation
- UNESCO
…and a growing network of expert partners committed to tackling this challenge.
By combining technical expertise, historical research, and international collaboration, Project Tangaroa aims to bring long-overdue attention to these silent threats, developing solutions that protect our oceans and secure a sustainable future.
Why It Matters
- Environmental Impact: Leaking fuel oil and cargo continues to damage ecosystems.
- Cultural Heritage: Many wrecks are war graves or hold historical significance.
- Human Livelihoods: Coastal economies, fisheries, and tourism remain at risk.
- Global Responsibility: The ocean connects us all, so does our duty to safeguard it.
Building Momentum
Over the past year, Project Tangaroa has brought together governments, NGOs, industry leaders, and academics through a series of international workshops. The outcomes highlight not only the scale of the issue but also practical pathways for addressing it.
You can read the culmination of findings from the last three workshops here.
Looking Ahead
World Maritime Day reminds us that the maritime sector has a central role to play in building a sustainable future. At Waves Group, we see addressing legacy wreck risks not as an option, but as an obligation.
Together with our partners, we are determined to ensure the mistakes of the past do not continue to damage the future.
Our obligation. Our ocean. Our opportunity.
