World Oceans Day is celebrated every 8 June. Originally proposed in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 2009 it has been officially recognized by the United Nations. Since then it has been coordinated internationally by the Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network, with increasing success and global participation each year. In the busy run up to this Sunday’s event, Daily Development talks to World Oceans Day coordinator Alyssa Isakower.

DD: What is World Oceans Day and why was it launched?

AI: World Oceans Day is a United Nations recognized day of celebration and action for our ocean. It’s a day to have fun and celebrate what we love about our ocean, and how it makes life possible for human beings. Even more importantly, it’s a day to do something to protect its healthy future—and ours.

The concept for a World Oceans Day was first proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Ocean Project has been working to promote and coordinate the global event since 2002, and we developed and circulated a petition to the United Nations urging official recognition of the day. With help from our partner organizations, tens of thousands of people from all parts of the world signed online or paper copies of the petition and the resolution was passed in December 2008.

DD: What are some of the most surprising facts about the ocean that you could tell us about?

AI: There are too many amazing facts about the ocean’s wildlife to mention here! I think two facts that would surprise many people are: human life as we know it depends on a healthy ocean; and human activities on land have a real, and often dangerous, impact on ocean health.

The ocean is often viewed as too big for humans to affect, but that isn’t true.

• Eighty percent of ocean trash comes from land-based sources.
• Seafood is one of the leading sources of the world’s protein consumed by humans; 200 billion pounds of fish and shellfish are caught or harvested each year. But many of the world’s major fisheries are in severe decline and, without intervention, global fish populations will be depleted within a generation.
• Climate disruption isn’t the only negative consequence of carbon pollution from dirty fossil fuels. Carbon pollution is also acidifying the ocean—since the Industrial Revolution, ocean acidity has increased by 30%, a rate that is 100 times faster than any change in acidity experienced by the ocean and its life for at least the past 65 million years.

DD: The theme for World Oceans Day 2014 is “Together we have the power to protect the ocean”. What do you hope will have been achieved by people working together by the end of this year’s World Oceans Day

AI: We hope—and so far the response has been wonderful!—that people use World Oceans Day as a chance to make change in their personal lives, in their communities and on a global level. If you read about World Oceans Day events, you’ll see what a great tool they are, not just for taking positive action for the ocean, but also for bringing people together with their communities. In the end we all need to be part of the solution for a healthy ocean; we can’t do it alone. We need strong communities to support each other and make a huge change for our planet’s healthy future. It’s our hope that World Oceans Day events are just a jumping off point for greater community-wide and global change.

DD: Can you tell us more about the “Take a selfie for the sea” campaign?

AI: “Selfies for the sea” is an extension of a social media campaign we started last year called Ocean Promises. That campaign asked people to hold up a sign stating one thing they wanted to do in their own lives to help the ocean. This year we wanted to expand that to show what people are already doing to help the ocean! People around the world are already doing things in their own lives and communities to be part of the solution. To join in, you can post a photo of yourself making change for the ocean—or making a promise to help—on social media with the hashtag #WorldOceansDay.

DD: There have been some remarkable events over the years marking World Oceans Day. Which is your favourite?

AI: It’s too hard to pick a favourite out of hundreds of cool events! Check out our past events highlights pages on our website!