Why is Ocean Conservation overlooked?

When you’re a kid, you love the ocean. It is, by far, the coolest thing (on earth) that you learn about in science class. It is the top destination spot for fieldtrips. While I don’t remember learning much in elementary school (I know I learned the fundamentals but frankly, my addition is still a little shaky) I definitely remember the out-of-classroom experiences and the emotions that came with. The excitement and shock I felt watching my 4th grade teacher pick up a horseshoe crab then flip it over during our “scientific” excursion to the jersey shore. I couldn’t delve into the recesses of my brain and pull out a single fact about horseshoe crabs right now, but looking back, I can tell you they are memorable creatures to experience.

And then you grow up. Forget horseshoe crabs… you can’t remember what year it is.

I’ve been thinking about education a lot lately and how I don’t remember learning about ocean-conservation. I hear everywhere that children are the future and we need to educate the youth about these problems. Yeah, we definitely do, I want my kids to be smarter than me, living on a healthier planet and enjoying the perks of a pollutant-free, abundantly resourceful ocean. Students Saving the Ocean is a great example of how that’s possible. Ten years from now, maybe those kids won’t remember statistics or facts about ocean pollution, but they’ll always remember how much fun they had on California Coastal Clean-up Day, and they’ll remember the bigger message (after all, the evidence is on YouTube). Hopefully, these experiences will continue beyond their elementary school years. I think there is a lot of hope for the future.

But what about the present? Why aren’t society’s adults still learning from experience? By the time I started working at DO, over a decade of ocean issues had exacerbated since my horseshoe crab encounter, none of which I knew a thing about. I carelessly ate the most delicious-sounding fish on the menu. In college, I thrived on single-use plastic items. Frankly, I didn’t realize the ocean was in serious danger. Or maybe I did, but didn’t think anything I could do would help. Besides, I had plenty of other stuff to worry about.

If you were to ask an adult if they knew of the dangers our ocean faced today, this is exactly the regurgitation of excuses you’d get. “Wow, I didn’t know” then, “or yeah, well… I sort of knew but didn’t think I could make a difference”, and finally “besides, I’ve got bills to pay”. Yes, a lot of people overlook environmental issues, and particularly ocean conservation, because they have more urgent problems to solve. Family, work, money… the list goes on. And those are all fair priorities to address in life. But why don’t adults care more about the ocean?

There are a lot of ocean-lovin fools out there (like you!) that try to educate on ocean-conservation and get the word out about what needs to be done. We are effectively infiltrating the schools with our knowledge and the kids are absorbing it like sea sponges. But ocean geeks alone are not enough to improve the health of our oceans. Everyone should care!

The ocean makes up nearly 3/4 of our planet… this a huge portion! If the population continues to grow at the rate it’s going, and we don’t find life on Europa, my great grandkids may have to build civilization on top of the ocean like in that awful movie, Waterworld. I do NOT want this.

Kids are wonderful and eager to please and will (hopefully) take greater steps within their lifetime to restore the ocean. Hopefully, the innovative and educational resources we provide will help them to experience the ocean in memorable ways. Hopefully, these memories will inspire them to become adult activists in the future! But we need to inspire adults too. They have knowledge and wisdom and are able to take action in ways that kids cannot. So I pose this question to you readers out there. How can we get adults excited about the ocean?