World Oceans Day is an international day that takes place annually on 8 June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the

Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

– UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "World Oceans Day" was officially recognised by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fosters public interest in the protection of the ocean and the sustainable management of its resources.

History

1987–1992

The

Brundtland Commission The Brundtland Commission, formerly the World Commission on Environment and Development, was a sub-organization of the United Nations (UN) that aimed to unite countries in pursuit of sustainable development. It was founded in 1983 when Javier Pé ...

(also known as the World Commission on Environment and Development) noted in the 1987 Brundtland Report that the

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

sector lacked a strong voice compared to other sectors. At the first World Ocean Day in 1992, the objectives were to move the ocean from the sidelines to the center of the intergovernmental and NGO discussions and policy and to strengthen the voice of ocean and coastal constituencies worldwide.

2002–2008

Globally coordinated efforts began with The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network collaborating, and events numbered in the dozens. During this time, www.WorldOceanDay.org launched, to help promote the opportunity to raise the profile of the ocean and provide opportunities for getting involved and making a difference for our blue planet. The website provides event organizers with ways to help in their communities, and generates global involvement through the dissemination of educational and actionable resources, ideas, and tools, always free for everyone to use to celebrate World Ocean Day in whatever way they choose. In 2004, The Ocean Project and World Ocean Network launched the "Help Make a Difference for our Ocean Planet!" with both online and in person opportunities to sign a petition to the United Nations to officially recognize 8 June as World Ocean Day. In December 2008, the UN General Assembly passed a Declaration to officially recognise the Day.

Annual themes

Overview

The United Nations selected the following annual themes for the Day: *2009:
Our Oceans, Our Responsibilities
. *2010:
Our Oceans: Opportunities and Challenges
*2011:
Our Oceans: greening our future
*2012:
UNCLOS @ 30
— United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) *2013:
Oceans & People
*2014:
Ocean Sustainability: Together let's ensure oceans can sustain us into the future
*2015:
Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet
*2016:
Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet ⁠— Voyaging to a Sustainable Planet: Arrival of the Hōkūle‘a
*2017:
Our Oceans, Our Future
*2018:
Clean our Ocean!
*2019:
Gender and Oceans
*2020:
Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean
*2021:
The Ocean: Life & Livelihoods
*2022:
Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean

2008

The Ocean Project The Ocean Project advances ocean conservation in collaboration with aquariums, zoos, museums, youth, and other partners in its growing global network. Since its formation in 1997, The Ocean Project has grown from a handful of founding North Americ ...

and

World Ocean Network The World Ocean Network (Réseau Océan Mondial) is an international non-profit association of organizations to promote the sustainable use of the oceans. One of its motto is "Caring for the Blue Planet, you can make a difference!" It was establi ...

launched an annual theme for first time: "Helping our climate / helping our ocean" with a special focus on coral reefs, to help support International Year of the Reef

2009/2010

Continued and more heavily emphasize climate with conservation action theme of "one ocean, one climate, one future" because comprehensive polling work showed that the public not making the connections between climate change and ocean health

2010

and

recorded over 300 events for WOD 2010, a 26% increase over 2009. Participation in the United States increased by 32% (with participation in 37 states, as compared to 25 states the previous year). Forty-five countries participated in World Oceans Day 2010, including Bangladesh, Belgium, French Polynesia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Malta, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Portugal.

2011/2012

Based on growing requests from around the world for a two-year focus, The Ocean Project and World Ocean Network launched "Youth: the Next Wave for Change" encouraging all participating organizations to more effectively engage young people in their communities and countries for education and action.

2013

"Make a Promise" global campaign focused again on supporting organizations to use World Oceans Day events as opportunities to ask people in their communities or target audiences to take action for our shared ocean.

2014

Through the global World Ocean Day network, stepped up involvement on the major issues facing the ocean, and launched "Together We Have the Power to Protect the Ocean!" with action guides on renewable energy/climate change, sustainable seafood/fisheries, plastics action. Events registered on th
World Ocean Day website
numbered in the hundreds. The United Nations together with partners launched the annual amateur World Oceans Day Oceanic Photo Competition.

2015-2019

In solidarity with the annual UN themes, The Ocean Project launched a five-year Conservation Action Focus on

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

prevention and helping with solutions for a healthy world ocean. Th
World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council
launched in 2016, and current cohort includes 25 diverse young leaders (ages 15–23) from 22 countries. Annual Reports since 2016 can b
viewed here

2020

The UN theme for World Oceans Day was 'Innovation for a sustainable ocean'. Conservation Action Focus on protecting 30% of our lands and ocean by 2030 ("30x30"), joining with the Campaign for Nature and the growing global movement to petition world leaders to commit their countries to 30x30. The Ocean Project and National Geographic coordinated a first-ever 24-hour Youth-a-thon for the ocean, with 24 co-hosts from 24 major time zones discussing and demonstrating ways to learn more about and help protect our shared blue planet. The World Ocean Day 2020 Annual Report can b
viewed here

2021

The theme for World Oceans Day in 2021 is 'The

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

: Life & Livelihoods'. The aim of this year's campaign is to "shed light on the wonder of the ocean and how it is our lifesource, supporting humanity and every other organism on Earth". Th
conservation action focus
for World Ocean Day 2021 focused for a second year on protecting 30% of our lands and ocean by 2030 ("30x30"), joining with th
Campaign for Nature
and the growing global movement to petition world leaders to commit their countries to 30x30. There were more than 1,000 events from 150 countries registered on th
website
and the 202
Annual Report
will be published online by September 2021.

2022

The theme for World Oceans Day in 2022 i
Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean
The campaign was promoted on social media. Its purpose was to raise awareness and action against the consequences of human activity on the ocean’s health, as 95% of the ocean’s surface has become more acidic since the late 1980s. The acidification of the oceans is dangerous to the marine ecosystem and affects more than three billion people who depend on the oceans for income and diet.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official United Nations World Oceans Day Website

Official United Nations World Oceans Day Website (2009–2017)
1992 introductions Environmental awareness days June observances Oceans United Nations days