World Oceans Day Blue Drinks
The Blue Drinks Santa Cruz gathering on June 12th in celebration of World Oceans Day was a huge success! Once again, Geisha Sushi provided a wonderful array of edamame, hot sake, and sustainably sourced sushi rolls, and we had a great turn out, with folks from FishWise, The Clean Oceans Project, the Seymour Center, Save our Shores, Island Conservation, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Reef Check, LivBlue and the California Academy of Sciences, among others.
In addition to the usual meet-and-greet atmosphere, we were treated to five brief talks on simple ways to take action on protecting ocean ecosystems. First up was our own Executive Director, Tobias Aguirre. Tobias filled us in on the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska — a project that would place one of the world’s most productive and healthy sockeye salmon fisheries in peril. Read more here.
Lauren Dockendorf from Save our Shores gave an encouraging presentation on three easily attainable steps to reducing plastic use in our daily lives:
1) Ditch the “to-go” coffee cups in the morning (they’re lined with plastic!) and bring your own mug.
2) Get a canteen and keep refilling it with drinking water — plastic bottles are one of the biggest culprits of plastic waste!
3) Bring your own re-usable (non-plastic) bag to the market.
Dr. J Nichols of the California Academy of the Sciences and LivBlue spoke about the importance of acknowledging the emotional side of marine conservation. Though a driving personal force for most of us in the field, it is rarely talked about in a serious light. Studies are showing that being near a body of water can have calming effects on humans and that the color blue increases creativity. J encouraged us all to commit “random acts of ocean kindness” using his blue marbles as a symbol of thanks and respect for the ocean.
Jim “Homer” Holm from The Clean Oceans Project gave us all a verbal pat-on-the-back for dedicating our lives to the marine conservation field and talked about the impact we can have on others as well as the planet, while Chris Reeves, Visitor Programs Manager from the Seymour Center, demonstrated the value of positive framing in communicating conservation issues — appealing to a person’s values when educating them about the plight of our oceans in order to make a better impact on them.
All-in-all, Blue Drinks was a big hit and we here at FishWise are looking forward to the next installment. Stay tuned!