It's Official- UN declares 'World Oceans Day' for June 08

by Nancy Knudsen on 9 Jun 2009 It didn't get the locals all steamed up around my way, but it's a start. The United Nations has declared June 8th as World Oceans Day, and organisations world wide are being encouraged to celebrate the day to preserve our oceans.

Maybe World Oceans Day will make more of a 'splash' in 2010.

The concept of a 'World Ocean Day' was first proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. However, lots of lobbying on the part of The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network for the last six years has finally found its mark, and they can claim an official status to the day.

In the meantime, they haven't been still. They have been already encouraging the promotion and coordination of World Ocean Day events and activities with aquariums, zoos, museums, conservation organizations and agencies, universities, schools, and businesses.

Each year an increasing number of countries and organizations have been marking June 8th as opportunity to celebrate our world ocean and their personal connection to the sea.

Recently, Maude Barlow, Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the UN General Assembly said: 'We have our oceans to thank for making life possible. Their waters cover nearly three quarters - more than 130 million square miles - of the planet's surface. They host a vast array of life and power climactic cycles that support and sustain everyone and everything on Earth. Indeed, one could make the case that without the oceans all life here would dry up and die out.

'Unfortunately a tide of exploitation and pollution is running against these great bodies of blue. The clutches of greed have foisted upon them an array of wasteful and inefficient technologies, questionable uses and poor management. To one degree or another, the push is on to take control of these vast waters meant to be public resources and, instead, give them to private hands bent on maximizing profit at the expense of all else.

'Be it industrial fish farms that leave a pall of pollution as they churn out their products, or technology that removes salt from the sea so the water can be shipped away without regard for the leftover toxic brine, or fisheries management schemes that drive family fishermen out of business and give all the fish to big corporations, our oceans face a tidal wave of threats.

'But there is still time to change course. And on this day, the first official World Oceans Day recognized by the United Nations, the international community can embark on a grand voyage of rescue and rejuvenation. The theme, Our Oceans, Our Responsibility, serves as a clarion call to shut down the forces that would seek to place these vast bodies of water under private control.'

If you are passionate about the state of our oceans, there IS something you can do to help. Right now, awareness is key.

For more information about the Ocean Project, and what you can do to be involved in your area in the 2010 World Oceans Day, go to their http://www.theoceanproject.org/wod/official.php!website