Earth Day, established in 1970, was the catalyst for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Water, Clean Air and Endangered Species Act. Forty years later our rivers, forests, wildlife and air are in much better shape.
Perhaps not as well known due to its infancy is World Oceans Day, celebrated internationally every June 8th. Originally proposed by Canada at the 1992 Earth Summit and then officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008, World Oceans Day is an effort to bring the same awareness to the other 71% of the earth's surface.
Let's hope it will have the same success, for the atrocities inflicted by man upon the oceans and its inhabitants are horrendous and need to be stopped. Shark-finning for soup, preventable oil spills, over-fishing, sewage outfalls, coral reef degradation and marine littering (50% are plastics) are just some of the threats.
For those of us who are Midwesterners where lakes, rivers and wilderness parks are more tangible, it's understandable for oceans to be “out of sight, out of mind.” We might not see them on a daily basis, but they support our daily lives by generating most of the oxygen we breathe, regulating our climate and feeding and nourishing us.
Therefore it is behooves us all to become more involved in their preservation. The call to action is to make a two year-long commitment to lasting change: “it's up to people like you to rise up and be the voice for the ocean all year long.”
So what can you do from afar? Of course charitable contributions are always helpful. But there are many other ways to help by making slight shifts in consumption. For example, limit your seafood intake to only those species that are sustainably fished. If you take Omega Fatty Acid (fish oil) supplements check the labels to be sure the oils came from sustainably fished sources. Cut back on anything that comes in plastic bags or containers. And by all means if you see shark-fin soup on a menu, fight it (it is simply cartilage with no health benefits or flavor).
The following websites have great information as well as suggestions for taking action:
- Guide to Fish and Seafood (with links to pocket shopping guides)
- FishPhone iPhone seafood guide app