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The World Unites On June 8 For World Oceans Day
World Oceans Day 2017 will be the biggest and best yet! For 2017, hundreds of celebrations are planned in…
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Get Ready for World Oceans Day 2017!
The Ocean Project promotes and coordinates World Oceans Day as a unique opportunity to celebrate our ocean and its life, and engage people in positive and empowering ways. The theme for World Oceans Day 2017 is "Our Oceans, Our Future," with a conservation action focus on encouraging solutions to plastic pollution and preventing marine litter for a healthier ocean and a better future. Get ready for World Oceans Day with updated free resources and event ideas for 2017. New promotional materials include posters available in 15 languages, graphics for social media, videos, and more! We have also teamed up again this year with The Octonauts to support you in celebrating in engaging ways for World Oceans Day. The updated Octonauts kit for 2017 includes graphics and activities that will help make your celebration more fun than ever! Looking for ideas for your World Oceans Day celebration? Check out the event planning guide for dozens of event and activity ideas and information, from art exhibits and festivals to races and contests. Head over to the World Oceans Day blog for even more event ideas updated regularly. Do you already know how you or your organization will be celebrating this year? Submit your event to the world map! The World Oceans Day site serves as a central coordinating platform for World Oceans Day, with new free resources each year and inspiring ideas for everyone – no matter where you live – to help expand the reach and impact of World Oceans Day on June 8, and continue year-round. Check the website frequently and sign up for the newsletter for updates!
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Youth Making Waves for Ocean Conservation
2016 brought a variety of challenges and triumphs for our oceans. While the world faced the hottest year on record and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffered from its largest coral bleaching event, we were still able to celebrate the establishment of the largest marine protected areas on earth in Hawaii and Antarctica, and cities and countries around the world put disposable plastic bag bans in place. As 2017 begins, there are still many goals to be met towards a healthier ocean. With high expectations to continue the trend of protecting ocean spaces and decreasing plastic use, there is still a need to fill a major gap in these processes: creating opportunities for youth engagement. With youth ages 24 and younger making up nearly 40% of the world’s population, it is imperative that we involve young people in creating a movement for a healthier ocean. This past year, The Ocean Project prioritized youth engagement and youth leadership development in a few ways. We launched the collaborative campaign, Sea Youth Rise Up, and created the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council. We created the Council to expand the reach and impact of World Oceans Day not only on June 8th, but also year round. From dozens of applications, 11 youth were chosen from around the globe. This bright and diverse group of young people, ages 14-22, come from a variety of backgrounds and educations. They come together with unique sets of concerns and a passion for protecting our oceans. Among other things, the Council members helped decide the winner of the third annual World Oceans Day Photo Contest and also wrote a series of blog posts for the World Oceans Day website. In their blog posts, the Council members share stories of ocean issues which matter most to them, and their motivations for joining the Council. In 2017, we will be looking to significantly expand our youth initiatives, with the collaborative development of Sea Youth Rise Up and expanding the scope of activities with the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council. The Council will be furthering their involvement through helping us develop culturally appropriate information and materials in multiple languages and collaborating with us to create a global alliance of youth for our ocean, including tweens, teens, university-age students and other millennials. If you or your organization know young people who would like to get involved in World Oceans Day, subscribe to the World Oceans Day newsletter to learn more. We are excited to work with our partners to enable more youth take action for a healthy ocean, and together create a better future for us all. Click on the names below to read each Council member's blog post from the Youth Making Waves series. Kevwe, Nigeria Melati, Indonesia Eugenia, Portugal Brandon, Curaçao Gabriella, Canada Mohammed, Morocco Caitlin, Australia Sang Jin, Germany La Tisha, Trinidad & Tobago Baylee, United States
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2016 World Oceans Day Annual Report
For World Oceans Day 2016, celebrations were held in over 100 countries across the globe, and millions of people were reached online. Our newly released, 2016 Annual Report, highlights the growth and success of World Oceans Day this year. As we prepare for 2017, we are focusing much more not only on rallying the world in June, but also on providing ways for organizations and individuals who get involved on World Oceans Day to become more engaged in protecting and conserving our oceans throughout the year. Thank you for joining this global celebration of our oceans. We look forward growing World Oceans Day even more in 2017! Many zoos and aquariums created unique ways to celebrate World Oceans Day - have a look at the latest blog from the Seattle Aquarium on the World Oceans Day website to see all the ways they found to celebrate this special day. It's not too early to let us know that you are interested in partnering with us for World Oceans Day 2017, or if you just want to learn more about World Oceans Day please contact us: info@worldoceansday.org.
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Shedd Aquarium Pledges to Protect our Blue Planet Year-Round
This guest blog comes from Aislinn Gauchay, Assistant Director of Great Lakes and Sustainability at Shedd Aquarium. Shedd Aquarium is a Supporting Partner of The Ocean Project. Earth. The third rock from the sun. Our humble planet has many names, but what makes our Blue Planet truly unique is what covers 71 percent of our surface and without which life would not exist: water. Oceans are the heart of our planet: they shape weather and wind, are home to one million animal and plant species and are the primary source of protein for more than 2.6 billion people. Oceans serve as the foundation for a delicately balanced food web that supports all life, from the Marianas Trench to the top of Mount Everest. Our oceans and the animals that call them home are critical to sustaining life on earth, human life included. However, our relationship to and dependence upon healthy, abundant oceans is not universally acknowledged. The most critical threats to our oceans are produced by human activity, such as overfishing, habitat degradation and pollution. More than 8 million tons of plastic trash end up in the ocean every year, including millions of disposable plastic bags and bottles. Though our oceans are often uncelebrated, there is one day out of the year where a plethora of organizations like the Ocean Project and Shedd Aquarium team up to celebrate what makes our planet blue on World Ocean’s Day. For this year’s celebration, the Ocean Project and singer Jack Johnson ignited the #WaveForChange challenge, asking people to do something to help our oceans. Shedd Aquarium’s President and CEO Dr. Bridget Coughlin took the #WaveForChange challenge on behalf of our organization and pledged to continue to reduce our plastic usage, spread the message, and encourage others to join us in making a difference. Shedd Aquarium is taking action on the issue of plastic pollution in our ocean and is constantly looking for ways to reduce our use of this seemingly omnipresent commodity in innovative ways. We started small, by providing reusable bags instead of disposable plastic bags, installing reusable water bottle refilling stations, and eliminating plastic straws onsite. Our goal is to continue this initiative at Shedd, in our community, and throughout the country. For example, during this year’s Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event in Chicago, we worked with race organizers and sustainability partner organizations 11th Hour Racing and America’s Cup Endeavor Chicago to inform event attendees and thousands of guests visiting Chicago’s landmark Navy Pier about the impact of plastic pollution on our lakes and oceans, offering them an opportunity to pledge to reduce their household plastic use. In 2015, we extended our commitment to freshwater and marine conservation at a higher level by joining forces with two other aquariums, Monterey Bay Aquarium and National Aquarium, to form the Aquarium Conservation Partnership (ACP). As a co-founder, and thus an executive committee member, Shedd works with fellow industry leaders to advance ocean and freshwater conservation policy goals. This includes advocating for the expansion of marine protected areas and increasing protection for exploited species. At Shedd, conservation is critical to everything we do. Whether it be sourcing only sustainable, restaurant quality seafood for our animals or pledging to reduce our use of plastic, Shedd believes we can all take steps and make a big difference toward protecting and preserving our oceans. We can do more together than alone. You can learn more about Shedd’s conservation initiatives on our website.
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Rising Up for the Ocean
Growing up on the coast of Florida, I had the chance to connect to unique marine environments and their inhabitants at an early age. Experiences with my family exploring Florida’s water resources, and learning more about these habitats through summer camps and education programs prompted my first interest in the wonder of the ocean. As I got older, my interest in marine science grew into an interest in ocean conservation – working with my friends and family to take action to protect the priceless marine resources of my home state. Through these early experiences I learned the importance of the ocean, how it connects people from all backgrounds on a global scale, and how it plays a key role in the existence of life on earth. At a young age I also learned the ocean is in trouble. From plastic pollution and climate change, to overfishing and habitat destruction, this priceless natural resource is threatened by the actions we take on a daily basis. Now through my work directing the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, and work with aquariums and conservation organizations on a global scale, I’ve seen the urgent need for action to address these challenges now. I’ve also seen the importance of engaging young people as leaders in the ocean conservation field, building on their passion, new ideas, and energy to build a movement to protect our blue planet. The Sea Youth Rise Up campaign, launched in the spring of 2016 as a collaborative effort between The Ocean Project, World Oceans Day network, the Big Blue & You and the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, is designed as a platform for young people to rise up for our ocean, share the important work of young conservation leaders, and inspire a global audience of young people to understand the important leadership role they play in protecting the ocean. Utilizing World Oceans Day as a rallying point, the campaign brought together seven young ocean conservationists from the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas: Ben May, Laura Johnson, Dazja Dorsey, Baylee Ritter, Simeon Bethel, Lindsy Myers, and Gabriella Schauber, for three days in New York City and Washington D.C. – allowing these incredible students to share their message of the importance of protecting our ocean with world leaders and their peers. Selected through a global video contest, as well as nominations from our Sea Youth Rise Up partner organizations, our 2016 Sea Youth Rise Up delegates arrived in New York City on June 7, 2016 and prepared for an exciting lineup of events and activities to celebrate World Oceans Day 2016. During our time in New York, Sea Youth Rise Up co-creator, Danni Washington and I joined our delegates for a Live World Oceans Day Google Hangout on Air, hosted from the New York Aquarium, where delegates had the opportunity to share their ocean conservation work and interests, the importance of youth leadership in the field of ocean conservation, and advice for other young people interested in ocean conservation who watched the broadcast from around the world in the United States, New Zealand, India, Curacao, Pakistan, Germany, Somalia, Greece, the Bahamas and Canada. A #SeaYouthRiseUp social media and Thunderclap campaign further highlighted the importance of youth leadership in ocean conservation to a global audience. Delegates also had the exciting opportunity to meet with ocean conservationist and singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, and attend the United Nations World Oceans Day reception. After a whirlwind tour through New York City, our Sea Youth Rise Up team headed out early on June 9 for our nation’s Capital where they participated in a White House Roundtable with members of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Through this unique experience, delegates had a chance to share their support for the creation of additional marine protected areas, and discuss the administration’s ocean conservation priorities. Our D.C. adventures continued with a stop at the Newseum for Capitol Hill Oceans Week, where our team members took part in a live broadcast with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and visits with staff members from Youth Service America and EarthEcho International during a wrap up picnic on national mall. We are incredibly proud and inspired by the young people who stepped up and raised their voices for the protection of our ocean through this special event. We’re also excited to continue to share their stories through the upcoming Sea Youth Rise Up short film, tracing their ocean conservation journeys and Sea Youth Rise Up experience, further calling on a global movement of young people to rise up and take on the challenges facing our planet’s marine ecosystems. A special thanks to the partners and sponsors who made this program possible – The Ocean Project, World Oceans Day network, Big Blue & You, Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, NOAA, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, the Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center network, jetBlue, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium, Youth Service America, and EarthEcho International. We are incredibly grateful for your support and belief in the power of young people to positively impact our planet. If you’d like to learn more about Sea Youth Rise Up, and the inspiring work of our 2016 delegates, be sure to check out www.seayouthriseup.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Sean Russell is the co-creator of Sea Youth Rise Up. He is the founder and director of the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, and works with SeaWorld, Mote Marine Laboratory, and conservation organizations on a global scale on youth leadership initiatives. You can follow him on twitter at @seandrussell.
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Thank you for celebrating World Oceans Day 2016!
Over the past two weeks, hundreds of events were held, thousands of individuals celebrated, and millions of people were engaged online for World Oceans Day. Aquariums and zoos, and other visitor-serving organizations once again played an integral role in the festivities, inspiring and activating thousands of visitors. Thank you so much for being a part of this global celebration of our oceans. This year’s theme was ‘Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet’, and people all over the world were focusing on the prevention of plastic pollution. Organizations committed to using less plastic and organized beach cleanups to clean their local beaches and waterways. Many establishments continued to implement the Better Bag Challenge and various iterations of it, at their celebrations. Aquariums like Shedd Aquarium, Texas State Aquarium, Virginia Aquarium and many more joined Jack Johnson and took the Wave for Change challenge by sharing videos of themselves doing the wave. You’re encouraged to keep the Wave for Change growing at your organization throughout the summer! The online buzz about World Oceans Day this year was huge! #WorldOceansDay trended second on Twitter with over 146K tweets. Instagram posts about World Oceans Day reached over 290 million people, and over 65 million people were reached on Twitter. Numerous zoos and aquariums participated by tweeting inspiring messages and sharing incredible photos of marine life. Celebrities like Richard Branson, Ellie Goulding, Pharrell Williams, Adrian Grenier, Nelson Mandela and more shared photos and tweeted their support for our oceans. Notable organizations such as the United Nations, CNN, National Geographic, LIFE, the White House and more joined in spreading messages of ocean conservation. World Oceans Day teamed up with Youth Ocean Conservation Summit and The Big Blue and You to create Sea Youth Rise Up, which brought seven youth ocean conservation leaders to NYC and Washington DC. The youth spoke about pressing ocean issues and solutions in a live google hangout at the New York Aquarium. Click here to watch their broadcast. The youth then headed to Washington DC to meet with ocean leaders at the White House, including discussing protecting more special coastal and ocean areas (see www.BlueBackyard.org for more information on some leading sites for protection). World Oceans Day also introduced the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council. There are 11 members on the council all coming from different countries around the world. The new advisory council will help expand the reach and impact of World Oceans Day, on June 8th, and year round. World Oceans Day will continue to engage youth throughout the year! World Oceans Day wouldn’t have been so successful without your organization’s passion for ocean conservation. World Oceans Day happens once a year, but our ocean should be loved and respected throughout the year. Stay tuned for new campaigns and initiatives to celebrate our oceans all year long! Thank you for your support and participation!
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Happy World Oceans Day!
Feliz Día Mundial de los Océanos! ハッピー世界海洋デー سعيد اليوم العالمي للمحيطات Vrolijk Wereld Oceanen Dag! Bonne Journée Mondiale de l’Océan! ਧੰਨ ਵਿਸ਼ਵ ਸਮੁੰਦਰ ਦਿਵਸ! 世界海洋日快樂 Feliz Dia Mundial dos Oceanos! Fröhlichen Tag des Meeres! हैप्पी विश्व महासागर दिवस के अवसर! Счастливый Всемирный день океанов! Chúc mừng Ngày Đại dương Thế giới শুভ বিশ্ব মহাসাগর দিবস! 행복한 세계 해양의 날 Felice Giornata Mondiale degli Oceani! Felis Dia Mundial di Océano World Oceans Day is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future. From the entire team at World Oceans Day headquarters, we hope you will celebrate your connection to our shared ocean on June 8th, and get involved in helping with solutions to the many challenges we face in creating a healthier ocean and a more sustainable society. No matter where you live – each of us affects the ocean and is affected by the ocean. This year, individuals and organizations across our blue planet are celebrating with the theme “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet” and are promoting prevention of plastic ocean pollution with events in their communities, with special announcements and everything in between! You, too, can get involved in a fun and easy way! Participate in the Wave for Change by joining singer Jack Johnson who started The Wave, asking people to make a commitment to the ocean on World Oceans Day, reduce their plastic usage, and spread the message that the oceans need our help. As Jack Johnson says in his video, youth are the key for a better future. We are particularly excited by our long-term commitment to involve youth: this week we announced the creation of a World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council, which will be instrumental in shaping the development of World Oceans Day into the future, providing new ideas and unique perspectives. Together, with the Youth Advisory Council, our growing global network of partners from all sectors in dozens of countries, and our Supporters, we will grow the reach and impact of World Oceans Day on June 8 and also expand opportunities for ocean conservation throughout the year. With the enthusiasm and involvement of people around the world, World Oceans Day has grown tremendously each year since The Ocean Project started promoting and coordinating it in 2002. With hundreds of partner organizations and networks involved, and especially since the United Nations officially recognized June 8 as World Oceans Day in late 2008, we have collectively reached millions worldwide. This global celebration is growing fast and provides a special day once a year to reflect on the importance of a healthy ocean, our ocean connections, and how each of us can make a positive difference in our lifetimes. We hope you will become more involved!
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Last minute World Oceans Day event ideas!
Last minute ways to mark this special day! World Oceans Day is just around the corner, but it's never too late to plan a great activity or event to celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8th! Here are some last-minute, quick n’ easy ways to do something to celebrate World Oceans Day and help out our ocean. First and foremost - join the #waveforchange! This World Oceans Day we invite you to commit to reduce the amount of plastic you use with a video pledge, and challenge your friends to do the same! Plastic pollution is a huge problem for the ocean. On May 25th, singer Jack Johnson started The Wave, asking people to reduce their plastic usage on World Oceans Day, and spread the message that the oceans need our help. Share your video commitment online with the tags #WaveForChange and #WorldOceansDay. Don’t forget to tag World Oceans Day on Facebook & Instagram, and @CelebrateOceans on Twitter. With social media, we can turn individual ripples into a wave of support for the ocean. Together we can help this movement grow and swell! Let’s get everyone to make a wave for ocean conservation! The Better Bag Challenge Take the Better Bag Challenge: promise not use any disposable plastic bags for a whole year. Take a better bag instead! Challenge your friends, family, coworkers, or club members to join you. Petition to Recognize World Oceans Day in Your Community Is World Oceans Day officially observed in your town or city, state, district, province, or nation? If not, follow our easy 5 step Community Proclamation & Petition Step By Step Guide to help your community join the growing list of those around the world who are making this unique celebration on June 8th an officially recognized annual event. Create a community art piece Getting your visitors, neighborhood, or any group of friendly folks together is a wonderful opportunity to make some art! Create a mural somewhere public – depict ocean animals, or display your community’s ocean promises. An even easier option is to do a sidewalk mural or art piece. You can even make eco-friendly sidewalk chalk at home! Clean up your favorite spot It’s great to get hundreds of community members out cleaning the beach or river, but it’s not the only kind of cleanup that makes a difference! Grab a few friends or family members and make an outing of it. Go visit your favorite beach, river, lake, or park for a picnic and bring some bags for trash. Go a step further and host a beach, river, lake, wetland, or underwater cleanup. Try contacting local outdoor, dive and water sport shops to help organize and spread the word. You can recruit volunteers through the media, community posters, or local youth groups. Follow the cleanup with a celebratory dinner featuring sustainable seafood! Check out all of our free online resources, and see our latest news for further last minute ideas.
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Celebrate the World’s Oceans this Earth Day!
Credit: Ocean Conservancy Every April 22, events are held worldwide to celebrate our planet and raise awareness about threats to environmental health, like climate change and pollution. Many of these efforts tend to have a terrestrial focus. While addressing terrestrial issues and taking action on land are crucial in working towards a sustainable future, don’t overlook the importance of the ocean and its interconnectedness with life on land! Visit the World Oceans Day Blog to learn more about what you can do this Earth Day and beyond as we lead up to World Oceans Day on June 8!
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