Photo: World Ocean Day
Awaken New Depths is the slogan for this year’s World Oceans Day, which has been celebrated every June 8th since 2008. World Oceans Day is designed to motivate collective action for the conservation of the oceans.
The observance of World Oceans Day began informally in 2002. Canada proposed its introduction in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Again at Canada’s initiative, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed June 8 as the World Oceans Day in 2008 in a resolution.
The purpose is to inform the public about the impact of human activities on the ocean and to mobilize and unite the world’s population in the project of sustainable management of the world’s oceans.
The ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and contains 1.34 billion cubic kilometers of water. No other planet in the solar system is known to have any liquid water on its surface.
Although the ocean is a continuous body of water, oceanographers have divided it into five main regions: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern oceans.
This year’s Ocean Day theme is Awaken New Depths. The UN is joining forces with policymakers, indigenous community leaders, scientists, private sector executives, civil society, celebrities, and youth activists to demonstrate the need to change our relationship with the ocean and devote more effort to its protection.
Life originated in water and still today it enables the survival of humanity and every other organism on Earth. Climate regulation, oxygen production, carbon absorption, and sources of food are only some of the roles of the ocean.
The ocean produces at least 50% of oxygen. Only 5% of the ocean has been explored, and the exact number of living beings inhabiting the oceans and seas is unknown.
The ocean is also the main source of protein for more than a billion people worldwide. It is estimated that by 2030, 40 million people will be employed in ocean-dependent industries.
We take more from the ocean than it can replenish. Nearly 90% of large fish species are endangered, and 50% of coral reefs have been destroyed. We must work together to create a new balance with the ocean so that we do not exhaust its wealth.
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