The Ocean Blog
Taking the Ocean Personally
Last week, we began asking visitors to the Ocean Portal a simple question: “How do you feel about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?"
We’ve received one Haiku and a slew of other interesting answers. Many people mourned the loss of wildlife, habitats, and ways-of-life. Many expressed frustration and a sense of helplessness. But perhaps the most interesting theme among the answers was a sense that we all can—and indeed must—do more to protect the ocean. I am “thinking very hard about the choices I make about energy use,” wrote one visitor. “I need to protect what I can,” wrote another. A third said simply: “I need to be more involved in what’s happening in the world.”
So today—World Ocean Day, 2010—we pose this challenge to all of our visitors: take the ocean personally. Find one more thing you can do in your own life to make a positive difference. Then do it.
We use the phrase Find Your Blue to describe the simple, crucial act of recognizing your own connection to the ocean—and acting on it. You can begin by making small changes in your daily routine. Or by learning more about the ocean and threats to its health.
One great way to get started is by joining us tonight for evening of deep thinking with renowned marine scientist Jeremy Jackson of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. Jackson’s talk “Brave New Ocean” will kick off our new lecture series Changing Tides by taking a hard look at biodiversity loss in the ocean. The program begins at 6:00 pm (EDT) in Baird Auditorium at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. If you can’t be here in person, the program will be webcast live.
What you hear may be startling, but hopefully it will also be inspiring. The ocean needs our help, and together, we have the power to protect and restore it. Join us.
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It all begins at
It all begins at home--literally. Within 2-3 years, all new homes should be built with solar panels and even perhaps small windmill on roof. Charge more for gasoline and invest the difference in solar/wind technologies research and subsidies for the home.
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/29/2010 - 11:22am.I teach 3rd grade Science in
I teach 3rd grade Science in a small community about 4 hrs. drive from the
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/12/2010 - 5:30pm.nearest ocean, but my students love to do the animal habitats units. I always include a great ocean unit including the sad things happening in our oceans like the 20mile deep circle of trash floating off the coast of California and how they and their families can do small things here to help prevent their trash & pollution from ending up in our oceans.(from rivers & streams in Texas that flow to the Gulf.). Every little effort can help but WE must TEACH our children how to care. Mrs. Castillo, Lott, Tex.
Thank you for your comment,
Thank you for your comment, Mrs. Castillo, and for all the work you do teaching the next generation. It's wonderful to know that there are teachers like you, helping young children understand these incredibly important issues. We hope you find useful materials on the Ocean Portal, including oil spill lesson plans and suggestions for things each of us can do in our daily lives to protect the ocean. Please let us know if there are other materials we could provide that would be useful in the classroom.
Submitted by Ocean Portal Team on Mon, 06/14/2010 - 2:56pm.It has been quite frustrating
It has been quite frustrating for me to not be heard but then I am just a common recreational diver. But, as a common recreational diver, I was able to recognize the severity of the oil spill and the much needed advice of not one but many organizations. I had posted on my facebook a month ago, "the horror" not knowing how else to describe the devestations. The need to "brainstorm" as well. Yet, after all BP has done to minimize the situation and everyone seems to be under some gag order or threat of job lose we still listen to BP. They have pulled the wool over our eyes for far too long, how can anyone give them any credability. It's time to turn the tables and shut them out. Mary Du Prel Drake, Toronto
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 12:21pm.I have spent my life cruising
I have spent my life cruising the world on my sailboat. I have seen absolute pristine untouched by man locations where the clarity and sea life was incredible. I first crossed the pacific in the 70's, then in the late 80's early ninties. The major difference over the years has been the impact of the population growth in the world upon the the oceans. The clarity in the Caribbean is way down, the visibility under water has become more murky. In the late nineties the reefs pretty much died out from I do not know what, BUT, in the last 4 or so years I have seen rebuilding of live corals and the fish are returning also. Sewage disposal
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 7:49am.it the major polluter on the islands here, and old sewage system are straining under the growth of population. But seeing the garbage in the Saragasso sea was an eyeopener, even if the baby fish would hide under it for protection.
Wat I try to do with my footprint in the world is this:
I am on the recycling committee, I work in a nursery where I continuly am training the populace away from toxic pesticides to more eco friendly ones, and on my boat I get my energy needs from the sun and wind power.
More and more nations need to
More and more nations need to be involved in ocean preservation. I visited the beaches of Algeria in north Africa and saw tons of plastic bottles left behind at the beaches. I started to pick them up but found that there was no trash are nearby and no recycling at all. More or less the same thing happened in Egypt although I stayed at resorts and workers there picked up the trash from the resort areas.
We must go beyond our borders now! Dr. Irene James, Lomita, California
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 12:43am.We have photos of a beach in
We have photos of a beach in Bonaire that is where old flip-flops go to die. Turtles mistake plastic bags for yummy jellyfish, and eating them compromises their health. I think it's critical that we cut down on consumption of plastics and responsibly dispose of what we do have. Implications of introducing manufactured items and chemicals into the seas is ultimately unknown. I will practice a reverence for the waters, and hopefully that will catch on eventually.
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 9:35pm.I am so glad that The
I am so glad that The Smithsonian has added the Ocean Portal to the many other non-profit and grassroots organizations helping us to stay informed, involved, and active on behalf of our beloved Oceans and their miraculous creatures. What a great way to kick off Ocean 2010 Day!
I take the Ocean very personally. For five years I worked as a 24-hr.-a-day volunteer in Bandon-on-the-Sea, Oregon, rehabilitating orphaned harbor, elephant, and northern fur seals. I consider the Oceans to be the biological and spiritual womb of our planet, and her children to be our relatives.
Right now I work online for many hours a day with groups like The Ocean Conservancy, Greenpeace, Oceana, Surfriders, WWG, NRDF, The Earth Institute, Hands Across the Sand etc. etc. trying to come up with solutions and alternatives, and very actively petitioning and writing personal letters to senators, governors, representatives, and President Obama (not to mention letters of much different tenor to Randy Prescott and BP).
I also forward information and pleas to follow suit to hundreds of people in my community and am pressing hard for the passage of HR 5249, the No New Drilling Act of 2010
I have given up gardening this summer and put every cent I would have spent on flowers, etc. to use as donations to all the groups I've mentioned.
I have consolidated my errands so that I need drive my small car only once a week. I am really looking at my carbon footprint, phasing out plastics, and always using canvas bags for groceries and such.
I was dismayed by the results of your voters' poll, that so few people seemed to be taking this seriously and/or were confused as to what to do. There is plenty to do! It is self-evident.
I know my comment is long, but I hope it is encouraging. There are some of us out here who are devoting our whole attention, and love, and effort on behalf of the Mother, in hopes that she will never, never be so violated again. Thank you so much, Tami Calliope
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 2:41pm.I LOVE THIS
I LOVE THIS
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 10:36am.Thanks! We hope you find
Thanks! We hope you find some useful materials and join us in-person or by webcast for the talk tonight (June 8th) at 6:00 pm!
Submitted by Ocean Portal Team on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 2:36pm.