August 8, 2024
How Can You Take Action for Our Oceans?
Our oceans are facing unprecedented challenges, and we must take action to safeguard them. From plastic pollution to overfishing and climate change, human activities are putting immense pressure on marine environments. But there’s hope if we act together! Every individual choice we make, from reducing single-use plastics to supporting sustainable seafood practices, has a ripple effect on ocean health. By recognizing the power of our daily decisions and committing to more sustainable habits, we can all contribute to the protection and restoration of our planet’s blue heart.
Here’s how you can take action for our oceans:
Become an Oceana Wavemaker
You can be a part of the more than a million global Oceana Wavemakers that support the protection and restoration of the world’s oceans. Our team is fortunate to have a tight-knit community of Wavemakers all over Belize who are ready and willing to speak up for our precious marine environment.
Sign up to become an Oceana Wavemaker and get access to quarterly updates on our campaigns throughout the year, be a part of countrywide cleanups, presentations, workshops, and campaign activities, and receive awesome Oceana gear!
Be informed
While you’re here, learn more about our work and campaigns aimed at winning policy changes that affect ocean health. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and X, and engage with us as we raise awareness about ocean-related issues and promote sustainable practices in fishing, coastal development, and marine resource management. You can also invite Oceana to give a presentation about our campaigns at your school, workplace, or an organized community event.
Support other marine conservation organizations, read books and other publications on marine science, and watch films about our natural world and how we can protect it. Learn how your choices, such as waste disposal, fishing practices, seafood consumption, recreational activities, etc., can impact the health of the oceans. Share what you know with others and encourage them to advocate for the oceans.
Be an advocate
You have a voice! Advocate for better laws — like stronger enforcement of the single-use plastics ban or the inclusion of environmental rights in the Constitution — that safeguard our reef, coastline, and marine life from harmful human activities. You can advocate by speaking to those in power about why it is essential to protect our environment through implementing or improving appropriate policies, voting for candidates who care about the health of our oceans and marine ecosystems. You can also be an advocate by supporting Oceana campaigns that call for action through signing petitions or letters of support, like this one, which calls on the government to make constitutional amendments to include the substantive right to a healthy and quality environment and the right to participate in meaningful consultation and decision-making processes via binding referenda.
Be kind to the ocean
Your daily choices can help protect our oceans:
- Reduce your single-plastic use as much as possible, recycle what you can, and properly dispose of your garbage.
- You can do a cleanup by yourself or with friends and family to prevent garbage from polluting bodies of water or habitats.
- To keep healthy fish populations, practice sustainable fishing methods, and support fisherfolk and businesses that fish sustainability — learn more at fishrighteatright.com.
- Wear reef-friendly sunscreen when in the water.
- We know they’re breathtakingly beautiful, but do not touch corals (if you do, you might kill it).
- Warming temperatures and other effects of anthropogenic activity can hurt marine life, disturb ecosystems, and create irreversible adverse effects. Take steps to decrease your carbon footprint and waste generation so that we can sustain marine life and healthy oceans for generations to come.
We are so excited that you are joining us and standing up for the world’s oceans! Feel free to email belize@oceana.org with any questions or comments.
