Take Action for Oceans

It's good to teach our children to act on their beliefs. When they understand the importance of oceans and how human activities threaten them, they can respond by taking part in a variety of ocean-supporting actions.

Raise public awareness about our ocean connections.

• Write feature articles for a local newspaper or radio about local ocean-related issues.
• Write letters to the editor suggesting local ways to help oceans.
• Create a library or, school display (maps, aerial photos, sewer plans, river routes) showing our links with the sea.
• Organize an Oceans Day proclamation or parade involving local councillors and dignitaries.
• Organize an environmental fair with ocean-themed games and activities.
• Organize an oceans talent, poster, or story writing contest.
• Write a song, or a play (skit).

Take political action on a local or broad scale.

• Support or initiate programs to reduce pesticide use and ocean-bound contaminants, especially along waterways.
• Support or initiate programs to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste, including toxic waste, in your school and community.
• Promote trail and sidewalk systems to encourage people to walk or cycle and reduce climate-changing automobile emissions.

Help stop litter from entering marine or freshwater ecosystems.
(Remember, they are connected!)

• Post "No Dumping" signs beside wetlands and rivers.
• Encourage ports and marinas to provide garbage disposal facilities.
• Clean up a beach, lakeshore, or riverbank.
• Post "No Littering" signs in schoolyards.

Restore and protect local marine or freshwater ecosystems.

• Replant native vegetation along riverbanks (riparian areas) to improve wildlife habitat, reduce erosion, and stop fertilizers and chemicals from washing into waterways.
• Plant native grasses on coastal sand dunes (e.g., marram grass, sandwort, and beach pea) to reduce erosion of fragile ecosystems.

Contribute to scientific knowledge.
(We still don't know all the effects of our activities on oceans.)

• Take an inventory of marine and water-dependent terrestrial species.
• Monitor pH, nitrate levels, phosphate levels, dissolved oxygen, or clarity of local water.
• Check pH levels of rain.
• Participate in species-monitoring programs.

Collaborate with another community on a project.

• Collaborate with a local or a distant community, or even one outside of Canada.
• Link up with other schools to do an ocean action project.

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