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World Oceans Day
2012 Theme: Youth - the Next Wave for Change
Why Should I Celebrate World Oceans Day?
It's up to each one of us to help ensure that our oceans are protected and conserved for future generations.
World Oceans Day allows us to…
Change perspective - encourage individuals to think about what the oceans mean to them and what they have to offer all of us with hopes of conserving them for present and future generations.
Learn - discover the wealth of diverse and beautiful ocean creatures and habitats, how our daily actions affect them, and how we are all interconnected.
Change our ways - we are all connected to the ocean! By taking care of your backyard, you are acting as a caretaker of our ocean. Making small modifications to your everyday habits will greatly benefit our blue planet.
Celebrate - whether you live inland or on the coast we are all connected to the ocean; take the time to think about how the ocean affects you, and how you affect the ocean, and then organize or participate in activities that celebrate our world ocean.Background
It was the Canadian government, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio that first mooted the idea of World Oceans Day. In 1998, UNESCO lent its support to this international day of celebration.
Since 2003 World Oceans Day has been coordinated jointly by the World Ocean Network and the American association, the Ocean Project.
A major stride forward
The World Ocean Network and the Ocean Project have worked closely together to promote World Ocean Day. For 6 years they strove to obtain official recognition of this Day as an International celebration by the United Nations. A petition to the United Nations requesting the Day’s official designation obtained tens of thousands of signatures from all around the world. Thanks to all the collective and individual efforts and to the ever increasing public mobilization for World Ocean Day, the United Nations General Assembly has now designated the 8th June World Ocean Day, the first official international celebration took place in 2009.
International reach
Every year, across the 5 continents, aquariums, research centres, museums, associations and institutions with a marine environment outreach role celebrate the 8th June. More than 200 organizations from 50 countries come together to take part in this festival of the ocean. On the program there are organized activities, games, arts and craft workshops, conferences and films ; it’s a fun day out and entirely dedicated to the ocean.
Links
- The Ocean Project
- World Ocean Network
- Students On Ice provides students, educators and scientists with an opportunity to participate in an educational expedition to the Antarctica and the Arctic.
This information has been taken from website "Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development"