Create a World Ocean Day festival, or add the ocean to other festivals and have a space for ocean-themed activities. Incorporate art by choosing any medium, from paint and chalk to discarded plastic to create ocean art. Set up a work station where people of all ages can learn more about ocean science and how to help by taking action in their own lives, and their communities. Take a look at these easy ocean science experiments!
Photo Credit: Texas State Aquarium
Sponsor a sustainable seafood event by inviting local chefs to give demonstrations and food tastings. Be sure to verify that their choices are sustainable!
Have a touch tank with ocean creatures (and make sure to get them back to their ocean home safely) or, if you’re close to the ocean, host guided coastal tours or sustainable fishing demonstrations.
Invite local musicians to play, host a dance (to ocean-themed music), or put on a short theater dramatization with an ocean conservation message surrounding 2024’s action theme: Catalyzing Action for our Ocean and Climate.
A fun and engaging way to get people excited about the ocean is through games. From an ocean awareness “wheel of fortune” to a huge game of “sharks and minnows,” whatever you choose should get people thinking about or playing in the water!
Invite local conservation organizations to run an information booth or organize your own volunteer booth with awareness and action materials. Provide information about ways participants can get involved in conservation in your area and how they can support the global efforts catalyzing action for our ocean and climate. Hand out sustainable seafood guides and cards from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and their International Resources with ways to take action for sustainable fisheries around the world.
Hand out ocean-themed prizes such as free kayaking, diving or nature tours; tickets to your local aquarium, museum, or zoo; ocean conservation t-shirts, hats, or other apparel; a sustainable seafood dinner; or membership to an ocean conservation organization. Alternatively, raffle off ocean prizes like coupons to local sustainable seafood restaurants; a day at the local aquarium, zoo, or museum; and so on, with proceeds supporting a conservation program.
Check out Big Blue and You‘s event Art by the Sea as an excellent example of what it might look like to combine all of the examples listed above into one big festival celebration for the ocean!
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All information, materials, and resources on this site and associated with World Ocean Day are free to use to those who are celebrating World Ocean Day as a way to bring about a healthier ocean and a better future.
The Ocean Foundation is the fiscal sponsor for World Ocean Day (EIN: 71-0863908)