The ocean plays a vital role in our planet's ecology, and it's important that we take steps to protect it. In this blog post, we will discuss some ways that community members can help protect our oceans.

Why do we celebrate world ocean day?

The United Nations General Assembly established World Ocean Day in December 2008. It was created to remind everyone of the importance of the ocean and its many resources, and also to focus on the need to protect it.

Did you know, the ocean provides at least 50% of the worlds oxygen?

Its home to 80% of the worlds biodiversity and its the primary source of food for billions of people. Yet despite its importance, the ocean is under threat from plastic pollution, climate change, and overfishing.

On World Ocean Day, we encourage our community to take action to protect our oceans. Lets all pledge to do our part in protecting this vital resource!

What are some issues facing our oceans today?

There are many issues facing our oceans today, including pollution, climate change, and overfishing.

• Pollution: Plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats to our oceans. Every year, millions of tons of plastic waste end up in the ocean, where it harms marine life and pollutes the water.
• Climate Change: Climate change is causing the ocean to warm and become more acidic, which is harmful to marine life. It also melts polar ice caps, which raises sea levels and floods coastal communities.
• Overfishing: Overfishing is a major problem in many parts of the world. It occurs when fish are caught at a faster rate than they can reproduce, which causes populations to decline. Overfishing also harms the ocean ecosystem by disrupting the food chain.
• Scraping our seabed: Bottom trawling is a type of fishing where heavy nets are dragged across the ocean floor. This damages delicate coral reefs and harms marine life and it's reported this could release as much carbon as the entire aviation industry (click here to read the full report)

If we don't protect our oceans, they will not be able to continue to provide us with the many benefits we rely on. We must take action to protect this vital resource!

How can local communities help protect our oceans?

There are many ways that communities can help protect our oceans. It doesn't matter if you live inland either because we all have an impact on the ocean and that piece of trash you see in your local river or stream, could well end up in our ocean too!

Things you can do to help protect our oceans

• Bring your own reusable bags when you go shopping.
• Use a reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic ones (check out our National Running Show Bottles here)
• Buy no more single use plastics
• Say no to straws, or even better, invest in a reusable metal or glass straw.
• Take a packed lunch - off of one "purchased" lunch, you're likely to throw away at least 6 pieces of waste - if every office worker did this just think of the difference it would make!

Reduce your plastic use: An obvious one, but even with all of the media coverage of the last few years, it's estimated that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans today. Much of this plastic is eventually ingested by marine life, which can be harmful or even fatal and guess what, if you eat fish, it's likely you'll end up with plastic on your plate too. You can help reduce this problem by using less plastic and more reusables with all of your meals.

It's very easy to say "I'm not going to use plastic now" but in today's society it can be difficult to avoid with nearly every food we purchase wrapped in some form of plastic.

Pick up ten: When you're out on a hike, at the beach, or even just walking around your neighborhood, take a bag with you and pick up any trash you see. You'll be surprised how much garbage is actually littering our environment and by picking it up, you'll help keep it out of our oceans. On a recent run, our run group went "plogging" (plogging is a combination of jogging and picking up litter) and we collected over ten bags of trash when we thought we may hardly fill one. We encourage our group to now #pickupten pieces of rubbish whenever they are out now. Just think how many hundreds of pieces of rubbish your community could collect if each person picked up ten.

Educate yourself and others: Learning about the issues facing our oceans can help inspire you to take action. Once you know about the problem and understand what affects it, you can share that information with others and help spread awareness. There are also many organizations working to protect our oceans, so get involved and see how you can help. Documentaries like Seaspiracy on Netflix (see the website here or trailer below) highlight some of the many issues affecting our oceans and marine life on a daily basis.

The more people are aware of the problems, the more likely they are to help make a difference.

Support ocean-friendly businesses: Look for businesses that are working to protect the ocean and make sustainable choices. This could be anything from a restaurant that only serves seafood that is sustainably sourced, to a clothing company that uses recycled plastic in their products or go for a plant based diet (have a look at what Friends of the Sea, part of the World Sustainability Organisation is up to here).

By supporting businesses that are working to help the oceans, you can help encourage others to do the same.

Get your community involved

It's likely that there is already community initiatives in your area working to help protect our environment, so get involved and see how you can help. If there isn't anything already set up, then why not start something yourself? All it takes is a Facebook post and you can be organising your local beach clean in no time at all.

Community involvement is essential to protecting our oceans. By working together, we can make a difference and help preserve this vital resource for future generations.

You could also head over to Surfers Against Sewage and join in one of the regional beach cleans.

World Ocean Day 2022

World Ocean Day is a great opportunity to learn more about the ocean and what we can do to protect it. By taking action and getting involved, we can all help make a difference. Head over to the UN website dedicated to World Ocean Day here for more resources and ideas on what you can do to help protect our oceans. There is a live event at 14.30 GMT hosted on the website today.

What are you doing to help protect our oceans? Share your ideas and inspiration on Instagram @beoutsidebeactive