World Oceans Day
Jingi wala greenthumbs!
‘Jingi wala’ means hello in Bundjalung language.
Did you know that about 70% (or just over two-thirds) of the planet is covered by oceans?! And that 70% of the oxygen we breathe is made by plants in the ocean?! Wow!
8th of June is World Oceans Day, and on this day we celebrate our oceans together!
On Bundjalung Country, where I live, indigenous people have a special connection to the ocean. They have very important stories about the ocean that have been passed down from family to family for tens of thousands of years.
This is a Bundjalung story from the Arakwal people. Listen to the voices. Watch the beauty of the ocean.
Please click on this picture to start the video.
What Country do you live on? Do you live near the ocean or far away?
I live near the Pacific Ocean. This week I learnt that the Pacific Ocean is the biggest ocean of all, and it covers about 30% of the planet.
Did you know?
Did you know that the planet’s biggest living thing is in the ocean? It's called the Great Barrier Reef (and it’s just off the coast of Queensland, Australia). It’s full of beautiful coral and amazing ocean animals. It’s so big it can be seen from outer space!
The world’s longest mountain range is in the ocean too. It’s called the Mid-Oceanic Ridge and it’s 56,000km long.
Our oceans are full of amazing animals like whales, sharks, sea turtles, fish, octopus and sea birds. The ocean is their home! Do you know any other animals that live in the ocean?
We humans have only explored about 5% of the world’s oceans. We have better maps of planet Mars than our oceans. That means there are lots of living creatures in the ocean that we don’t even know about yet. There is so much to learn and discover.
But, we have a plastic problem!
But there’s a bit of a problem with our oceans, and I wondered if you can help? There’s a lot of plastic rubbish in our oceans. And that means our beautiful ocean animals can get stuck in it (or sometimes they mistake it for food and try and eat it).
Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It’s a huge area of plastic rubbish floating in the North Pacific Ocean. And when I say huge, I mean twice as big as the country of France!
So how does plastic get into the ocean? Well, if it’s left on the ground it can get blown into a river and float downstream all the way to the ocean. Or if there’s rubbish left on the beach it will end up in the water.
That sounds like a problem that needs our help!
Let’s fix it
There are lots of things we can do to help fix this problem and keep our plastic out of the oceans. Here are three things that you can do to help.
Reduce
You can reduce the amount of plastic you use by trying not to buy things that come with lots of wasteful or non-recyclable wrapping. You can also say no thankyou to plastic straws.
Reuse
You can reuse a lunchbox instead of disposable plastic containers for food. You can fill up a reusable drink bottle with water instead of buying disposable water bottles. You can also take a cloth bag to the shops instead of using a plastic bag.
Recycle
Remember to put recyclable plastics into the recycling bin! If you can do this, they’ll get taken away and turned into new things that we can use again.
Remember the three Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle!
Want to help more?
So what do you think! Do you think you can help?! To find out more about how to help our amazing oceans, click on Take 3 for the Sea.
Some super greenthumbs at the Evans Head Beach Clean up!
Happy World Oceans Day greenthumbs!
