Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern. If you haven’t studied your geography lately, those are the world’s five oceans. And today is the day that people both along the edges of all of those oceans as well as those further inland are celebrating all five of the world’s oceans. Today, June 8, is the 31st World Oceans Day. While there are many goofy holidays out there like World Pancake Day or National Rubber Ducky Day, this one is both celebratory and serious.
World Oceans Day started in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development out of the desire to promote awareness and advocacy around the world’s oceans. As often is the case, the early years of the celebration were somewhat small-scale and had a handful of local pockets of activity. But since then, the event has grown to include places and groups worldwide that creatively message about the value of and the threats to the world’s oceans through festivals, parades and multimedia presentations.
One of the strongest components of the campaign around World Oceans Day is the emergence of a group of youth leaders. The Youth Advisory Council was created in 2016 to bring together young people interested in advocacy and to provide tools and a platform for them to do so. As you might imagine, a major component of this work is through social media. This group has raised awareness through a number of projects, including the Youth-a-thon, which was created in June 2020 and done again in 2021. Each time, it was a 24-hour livestreamed event with youth throughout the world participating; it can be viewed on the World Oceans Day website at worldoceanday.org. In addition, leading up to the June 8 holiday, there is a four-week advocacy training series for youth interested in learning how to be active in ocean conservation efforts. This year’s training has ended but look for it again in late April of next year.
Following the theme of “Think globally, act locally,” there are several events taking place around Maine. The Oceanarium in Bar Harbor, for example, has a day-long event with games and music among other activities on June 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. And in Portland, the Children’s Museum and Theater of Maine is hosting a daylong celebration today with activities, including making ocean-themed art and a mini tide-pool habitat.
Even closer to home, those who rely upon the ocean’s resources will be taking good care of those resources by cleaning up trash and debris along the shore and out on the intertidal. As a part of Brunswick’s shellfish-harvesting program, commercially licensed harvesters commit to earning conservation points each year by doing things like cleaning up the areas where they harvest. This Sunday, June 11, they will be out along the coast for one of the regularly scheduled clean-up dates. Their efforts contribute to the health of those intertidal areas not just for the shellfish that they harvest but for all of the marine resources in the area as well as those that enjoy the coast.
Another event, which it has recently passed but is available by recording on Brunswick’s local cable channel, is a workshop on “yardscaping.” Yardscaping refers to efforts of property owners to practice more sustainable lawn care in an effort to keep water quality in the town’s watersheds and surrounding coastal areas healthy. The event was a collaboration between the town of Brunswick and the recently merged Cathance River Estuary Association and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust and featured a presentation by the Cumberland County Soil and Water District.
One of the priorities of the World Oceans Day efforts is to reach the goal of “30 x 30.” That is the concept of protecting 30% of our lands, waters and oceans by 2030. That’s a lofty goal to reach in less time than the entire span that World Oceans Day has been around. But more achievable on an individual level are local efforts like coastal clean-ups and environmentally friendly yardscaping practices — both of which are simple and make a real impact.
Susan Olcott is the director of operations at Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.
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