What You Can Do

Tell your local representatives that you support expansion of marine reserves to protect valuable and threatened marine species and habitats.  To learn more about marine reserves and take action see: www.piscoweb.org/outreach/pubs/reserves; www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov.  

Get involved with management of marine areas in your neck of the woods.  Visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website and click on a link to your local fisheries management council: www.nmfs.noaa.gov/councils.htm.  These sites will provide information about upcoming council meetings and other events in your area.  

Help reduce climate change. Take steps to curb your own carbon footprint, and encourage action by your local community, religious group, and schools. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly to preserve the life support systems of the planet as we know them.  This challenge requires action at the individual, community, national, and international levels, but we can all play a role.  There are several organizations with scientifically sound, trusted information about climate change and how we can each make a difference.  We recommend the following:

http://www.350.org/action-ideas

http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/action/

http://www.earthlab.com/

One of the most important steps you can take is to support urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by writing to your representatives in Congress.  Several bills are currently in Congress regarding ocean legislation and climate change—you can make a difference by voicing support for the measures that need to be taken now to protect the seas and the people who depend on them.   See www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ta_actionalerts 

to receive updates on pending legislation and let your voice be heard.  

Beach Clean ups are a good way to get to know your community and help keep garbage out of the sea or prevent it from re-entering the sea.  This is also a great way to introduce kids to the concept that "all drains lead to the ocean" and that the ocean is not endless—it is just a big salty pool and what goes in, eventually washes back up or fills up the water.

Limit your use of plastic.  Not only does new plastic require use of fossil fuels, but every year tens of thousands of seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals drown or starve due to entanglement in marine debris, over half of which is from plastic.  Once in the ocean, it is hard to clean up plastic waste, so it is best to stop it at the source—demand less and less will be produced. You can start by bringing your own bag to the grocery store, and purchasing foods with minimal packaging.

Read the labels on your pet's food.  Avoid buying pet food that contains fish meal.  According to a recent article in the New York Times, by Paul Greenberg, the pet food industry uses about 10 percent of the global supply of forage fish. The removal of wild forage fish threatens to starve whales, seals, and other predators.  Sardines, anchovies, mackerel and other pelagic forage fish should be used to feed humans.  Adding to the problem, fish meal is also fed to farm animals, the swine industry consumes 24 percent of fish meal and oil, and the poultry industry takes as much as 22 percent.  Therefore, even if you avoid pet foods that list fish meal as an ingredient, Fluffy may be indirectly enjoying a seafood meal. As Greenberg concludes, we need to insist that land-based animals stick to eating land-grown food.  To read the article, click here.  

Reduce lawn fertilizers, stop washing your car on the street, and don't litter. Again, all drains lead to the sea. Preventing chemicals and pollutants from going in is much easier than trying to get them back out.  

Support organic farming and local farming practices that do not use massive amounts of fertilizer and produce grass-fed instead of grain-fed meat. The latter requires tons of nitrogen, which washes into the ocean, and is contributing to massive "dead zones" –areas where there are so many nutrients that bacteria go wild, growing like crazy and sucking all the oxygen from the water so other life forms cannot live there anymore.  

Buy sustainable seafood locally caught/raised whenever possible.  This ensures that you know where the fish comes from, how it was caught, and what it is. It also reduces the carbon footprint of shipping and packaging.  Of course, you'll want to make sure that this information leads you to conclude that it was sustainably caught!  

Experience it.  This is the best way to gain the inspiration that will ultimately fuel your actions to help protect the oceans. Go on, slip into that watery realm—grab a mask and just float for awhile. Or, if swimming isn't your thing, take a boat ride on a small boat—the kind that when a wave comes you'll feel some spray. Or walk along the seashore, collect some shells, skip some rocks, watch the moon pull the tide.  We also recommend renting or buying the BBC's Blue Planet—an incredible look beneath the waves in those places most of us will never quite get to.  You can also check out Blue Ocean's photo gallery to see some spectacular images of this watery realm.  Get to know this largest living space on the planet. It is a world of inspiration, vitality, mystery, remarkable beauty, and untold promise.  Learn what is there and let yourself be inspired.