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World Oceans Day: 8 June 2018

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World Oceans Day is celebrated globally on 8 June each year to remind everyone of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. 

The purpose of World Oceans 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 2018 Action Theme is: Preventing Plastic Pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean.

 

Plastic pollution is causing harm to our oceans:
  • 80% of all pollution in the ocean comes from people on land. 
  • 8 million tonnes of plastic per year ends up in the ocean, wreaking havoc on wildlife, fisheries and tourism. 
  • Plastic pollution costs the lives of 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals per year. 
  • Fish eat plastic, and we eat the fish.
  • Plastic causes $8 billion in damage to marine ecosystems each year. 

Use less plastic and recycle the plastic you use.


The first World Oceans Day took place in 1982. Last year, in June 2017, for its 25thanniversary in Rio de Janeiro during the United Nations Oceans Conference, the focus was on the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The goal is to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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