“Awaken New Depths,” Oceana Celebrates World Oceans Day

This weekend, Oceana in Belize will commemorate World Oceans Day with various activities in various municipalities across the country.  World Oceans Day was originally proposed in 1992 at an Earth Summit and U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Since then, a number of countries around the world, including Belize, have celebrated June eighth as World Oceans Day.

 

Miriam Longsworth, Communications Specialist, Oceana

“World Oceans Day is on Saturday, June eighth and the theme this year is “Awaken new depths.”  It’s urging everyone to do their part in caring for the ocean and protecting the oceans.  It’s about deepening our passion and tapping into our creativity in how we view ocean conservation.  This Saturday, we have a couple events happening that we’re inviting the public to join us on.  We have two cleanup campaigns, one here in Belize City.  We’re partnering with Sea of Life, Belize Game Fish Association and the Scout Association of Belize and that’s going to start at 7:30 at the scouts headquarters on Regent Street.  The other cleanup activity is in San Ignacio near the Macal River. We are teaming up with the Interact Club of San Ignacio and Santa Elena, that cleanup activity starts at 8:30.  On Sunday, in Corozal, we are partnering with the town council and House of Culture and we’re doing a sip and paint activity.  It’s a family event.  We’re going to be painting reusable tote bags, so that’s gonna be a fun and creative way for us to have a conversation and spread awareness on ocean conservation.  We are encouraging the public to participate in these activities because it’s a great way of sparking that conversation on why it’s important for us to protect our oceans.  Our oceans sustain us and here in Belize we depend greatly on our ocean.  Without a healthy ocean, it’s going to impact our livelihoods, our sustenance, our economy.”