On June 8th hundreds of communities and organizations around the globe will celebrate World Oceans Day! It’s an opportunity to focus on our shared world ocean, learn more and do more to help protect and conserve the ocean, for now and for future generations.
The celebration brewing for 2012 is bigger than ever with family-friendly events at zoos, aquariums, museums, exciting online events, and strong prospects for a new youth movement to protect the ocean! A record number of aquariums, zoos, and museums and other organizations and agencies are providing ways on World Oceans Day for their visitors to get inspired and take personal action to help our world’s ocean.
This year celebrates the theme: “Youth: the Next Wave for Change” focusing on inspiring the young people in our communities to be ocean advocates and agents of change. Publicopinion research by The Ocean Project supports this emphasis, finding that youth and young adults:
- Express more interest and concern about the health of the ocean, and the problems of pollution, overfishing, and climate change
- Look to aquariums, zoos, and science centers for ways they can be part of the solution
- Have a higher belief in their own ability to make a difference
- Are recognized by their parents as better informed on ocean and environmental issues
The Ocean Project has been helping to lead this event for the past decade and this year we’ve gone even further by developing and collating a great suite of tools and resources to help our partners do more on and around World Oceans Day. Please check out the updated website for a new mediatoolkit with free images, videos, blogs, and press release, all free for you to use and customize for your audience.
Whether you’re an organization holding a celebration, interested in attending an event, or want to spread the wordonline—the WOD website has resources for you!
Join the World Oceans Day community and post a picture of yourself with a pledge for the ocean. You can post it on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, anywhere. Just let us know (tag @The Ocean Project on Facebook or @theoceanproject on Twitter) so you can be part of the mosaic! If you have Flickr, you can post it on our group: http://ow.ly/biT60.
You can also Like us on Facebook or send the WOD Coordinator an emailto get involved.
Happy World Oceans Day 2012!
