What a trip to far-flung islands taught me about protecting our oceans

LIKE many British people, I have always been vaguely aware of the existence of a place called the Pitcairn Islands. I would have struggled to point to it on a map, let alone name which ocean it is in. But I have just been there. It is a British overseas territory in the South Pacific, a four-day sail from Tahiti and over 500 kilometres from the nearest inhabited island – and the epic journey was worth it.

Pitcairn’s history is captivating. It was the final destination in 1790 of some of the Bounty mutineers and most…