World Ocean Day - Before Its Too Late!

Wednesday, June 8th is World Ocean Day, a day when people everywhere can unite to celebrate and take action for our shared blue planet, with one ocean and one climate, which connect us all. We encourage you to get together with your family, community, and /or your company and join with millions of others around our blue planet to create a better future. By working together, we can — and will — protect and restore our shared ocean and climate. Join this growing global celebration on June 8th and let’s keep the conversation rolling

The purpose of the Day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilize and unite the world’s population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.

The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries – including the United States – now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean. The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known. The Southern Ocean is the ‘newest’ named ocean.

According to the National Ocean Service, just 5 percent of Earth’s oceans have been explored and charted – especially the ocean below the surface. The rest remains mostly undiscovered and unseen by humans.

Oceans serve as the planet’s largest habitat and also help to regulate the global climate. Ocean currents govern the world’s weather and churn a kaleidoscope of life. Humans depend on these teeming waters for comfort and survival, but global warming and overfishing threaten Earth’s largest habitat.

Sea life

The oceans are home to millions of Earth’s plants and animals—from tiny single-celled organisms to the gargantuan blue whale, the planet’s largest living animal. Fish, octopuses, squid, eels, dolphins, and whales swim the open waters while crabs, octopuses, starfish, oysters, and snails crawl and scoot along the ocean bottom.

Life in the ocean depends on phytoplankton, mostly microscopic organisms that float at the surface and, through photosynthesis, produce about half of the world’s oxygen. Other fodder for sea dwellers includes seaweed and kelp, which are types of algae, and seagrasses, which grow in shallower areas where they can catch sunlight.

The deepest reaches of the ocean were once thought to be devoid of life, since no light penetrates beyond 1,000 meters (3,300 feet). But then hydrothermal vents were discovered. These chimney-like structures allow tube worms, clams, mussels, and other organisms to survive not via photosynthesis but chemosynthesis, in which microbes convert chemicals released by the vents into energy. Bizarre fish with sensitive eyes, translucent flesh, and bioluminescent lures jutting from their heads lurk about in nearby waters, often surviving by eating bits of organic waste and flesh that rain down from above, or on the animals that feed on those bits.

Despite regular discoveries about the ocean and its denizens, much remains unknown. More than 80 percent of the ocean is unmapped and unexplored, which leaves open the question of how many species there are yet to be discovered. At the same time, the ocean hosts some of the world’s oldest creatures: Jellyfish have been around more than half a billion years, horseshoe crabs almost as long.

Other long-lived species are in crisis. The tiny, soft-bodied organisms known as coral, which form reefs mostly found in shallow tropical waters, are threatened by pollution, sedimentation, and global warming. Researchers are seeking ways to preserve fragile, ailing ecosystems such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.