World Oceans Day

Technically World Oceans Day was June 8th, so I'm a couple days late in posting about this, but I hardly think that matters. To me, every day is World Oceans Day. I love the ocean. I always have, and I always will. There is so much wonder, beauty, and mystery hidden beneath the shimmering blue waves. Naturally I want to do my part in protecting the oceans because that is where my shark homeboys live. While sharks are clearly the coolest and best part of the oceans, there are still a lot of other living things that need taking care of there.

I recently watched Bambi as part of my "Watch every Disney movie in order" challenge. In it, Bambi and his mother have a very close call in the meadow when man comes and starts shooting without consequence. Later man comes back and succeeds in burning down the entire freaking forest! Good job, guys! Well guess what? That's not a stretch. We are killing our earth. Plain and simple. Land has it's problems, but so do the oceans. Plus the oceans are like 75% of our planet, so if we ruin them, we're totally screwed.

It seems like common sense, but let me spell it out just in case it's not. Mind you, the slaughter of sharks is just ONE of MANY problems we are causing in our oceans.

Hi! I'm a shark! I'm the ocean's top predator! I'm very important! I keep this ecosystem in check. Lately me and my friends have been having a hard time taking care of our ecosystem because there just aren't that many of us left. I promise I'll keep working on it! Hopefully we can get this place back up to snuff soon!

Hi! We're fish! We used to be scared of sharks and swim in fear all the time. Now we don't see sharks that much and our family is growing! There are so many of us! It's great!

Hi! We're phytoplankton! We hang out in plants at the surface of the ocean. We are dying because there are so many fish! We can't keep up! The fish are picking us clean and we are struggling to do our job!

Hi! I'm the air you breathe! Did you know that up to 85% of me comes from the oceans! Not only are humans polluting me with all their nasty fuels, but I'm struggling to get the oxygen I get from the oceans! There just aren't enough phytoplankton left to feed me!

Like I said, the slaughter of sharks is just one problem. I'm pretty sure man ruins everything it touches. I mean look at what we are doing!

The mass slaughter of dolphins. For more on this watch the documentary The Cove, if you've got a strong stomach. It's more graphic than Sharkwater.

Overfishing

Dying Coral Reefs

Shark Finning

Oil spills

Trash EVERYWHERE

Acidification

If you don't see anything wrong with these photos, you should probably check into a mental institution because THIS IS NOT OKAY. We're pretty darn lucky to have this Earth that provides us with life. There aren't any other planets that can do that! We've only got this one planet, so we better start taking better care of it! This isn't a movie where we can all move into a giant spaceship to live when we screw it up, we can't relocate to Mars, we can't hit a reset button. We have one shot, and we're blowing it! For information on how we can reverse this screw up visit oceana.org. We can make a difference. Let's get started!