When you look at the Earth, it is a no brainer that the planet has been nicknamed “The Blue Planet.” With 71% of its surface covered in water and oceans hold 98.6% of all the Earth’s water, it is great that there is a special day just for the oceans – World Oceans Day. Read on for 5 ways you can celebrate by protecting our oceans.
The ocean is important for quite a few reasons. First, it creates most of the oxygen we breathe. Marine plants produce 70% of the oxygen we breathe and the rainforest generates about 28%. The oceans also regulate our climate, cleans the water we drink, and organisms its inhabitants help create a lot of our medicines. We also can’t forget that the ocean provides us with the majority of the fish we eat!
Protecting our oceans and the marine life within it is important for our health and the health of the Earth. According to National Geographic, about 31% of the world’s fish populations are overfished and 58% are fished at the maximum sustainable level.
What Can You Do To Celebrate World Oceans Day?
For one day a year, we can all come together to celebrate the ocean and do small acts to keep it clean and healthy.
1. Join a World Oceans Day Activity
If you would like to join an event that people in your community will attend, look up what World Oceans Day events are happening around you. These activities vary from talks, happy hours, film screenings, beach cleanups and more.
2. Watch A Nature Film
Another option is to watch a nature or ocean film at home. Educate yourself, your friends and your family, by learning about the animals that are on the Earth and how humans are affecting their habitats. After watching a documentary, you can have a conversation and point out ways that you can live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
3. Clean Up Your Neighborhood
Hands-on activities can include cleaning up your neighborhood. Even if you don’t live near water, all the trash that goes into the storm drains will eventually end up in the oceans or another body of water. Take 30-minutes to collect trash and make your community beautiful while also protecting the ocean.
4. Live Plastic Free
While it might be hard to change to a completely plastic free lifestyle, attempt to go this day plastic free or at least avoid single-use plastics. This will help reduce ocean plastic pollution. Some common items to not use are disposable water bottles, straws, plastic bags, and plastic utensils. To help, we've partnered with Mable Brush and HAY! Straws with eco-friendly products like bamboo toothbrushes and straws made from wheat stems! Tune in on our Instagram Page on June 8th to enter to win amazing products that also protect our oceans!
5. Eat Sustainably Caught Fish
Some techniques catch more fish at a time but can result in capturing unintended species, resulting in injury and death to many sea creatures, some of which are already endangered. This is called by-catch. Instead of mass catching fish, sustainable methods include pole and line, troll, purse seine, and more!
Here at Wild Planet, we pride ourselves on using the most sustainable fishing methods to catch fish. We catch tuna solely through pole and line and trolling methods. This means only one fish is caught per line at a time – ensuring we only catch what is intended and don’t create by-catch. For our salmon, sardines, anchovies, mackerel and yellowtail, we use purse seines or gill nets to catch certain schools of fish. Wild Planet uses single species targeted purse-seine fishing methods, which virtually eliminate by-catch of other species while also benefiting the overall marine ecosystem.
So, why not celebrate World Oceans Day by participating in activities that will keep our ocean healthy like picking up some trash that is in your neighborhood, trying going plastic-free, or watching a nature film about the ocean or Earth. If you do want to eat some fish, make sure it is sustainably caught like Wild Planet! Comment below how you're celebrating World Oceans Day!
