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World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future. Worldwide, people are coming together today to discuss solutions to plastic pollution and preventing marine litter for a healthier ocean and a better future. Why celebrate World Oceans Day? The answer is striking in its simplicity; a healthy world ocean is critical to our survival.

Every year, World Oceans Day provides a unique opportunity to honor, help protect, and conserve the world’s oceans. Oceans are very important:

  • They generate most of the oxygen we breathe
  • They help feed us
  • They regulate our climate
  • They clean the water we drink
  • They offer a pharmacopoeia of medicines
  • They provide limitless inspiration!

For the Caribbean Region, the ocean represents the life blood for critical economic sectors including agriculture, tourism, fisheries, and transportation.

CARICOM Secretariat, Mr Christopher Corbin commented on the significance of the celebration for the region, “[It] offers an opportunity for all of us as Caribbean people to reflect on the critical importance of oceans and the Caribbean Sea to our economies and to our societies. We need to highlight the actions that we take that cause negative impacts on the Caribbean Sea and its associated coastal and marine ecosystems and the fact that these impacts are not ‘Out of Sight – Out of Mind’, but already jeopardising the provision of essential goods and services.”

The Caribbean Sea has historically been the lifeblood of Caribbean people and continues to be the basis for social and economic development whether it is in sectors such as fishing, maritime transportation or tourism.

Mr Corbin added, “World Oceans Day also offers us an opportunity to showcase new and emerging opportunities e.g. wave and tidal energy potential, international telecommunication (through submarine cables) and for making the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources an integral part of our development agenda and in so doing ensuring that measures are put in place to safeguard this resource for future generations.”

The Ocean Project has promoted and coordinated World Oceans Day globally since 2002. Contact them to find out more and get involved.

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