World Oceans Day is an opportunity to honour the world's ocean, celebrate the products the ocean provides and also a time to appreciate its own intrinsic value. Global pollution and over-consumption of fish have resulted in drastically dwindling population of the majority of species.
The concept for World Oceans Day was first proposed in 1992, by the Canadian government at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and it had been unofficially celebrated every year since then.
Since 2002, The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network have helped to promote and coordinate World Oceans Day events worldwide. They help coordinate events and activities with aquariums, zoos, museums, conservation organisations, universities, schools and businesses.
Each year an increasing number of countries and organisations have been marking June 8 as an opportunity to celebrate our world ocean and our personal connection to the sea.
The Empire State Building will be lit on the evening of 8 June for World Oceans Day in white, blue and purple, representing the different layers of the ocean. White at the top represents the shallowest, sunlit waters and also the polar ice cap. The blue represents the slightly deeper ocean waters, and the purple even deeper waters in the ocean. The unlit portions, or black, represent those parts of the ocean where the sun does not reach. The overall representation covers all aspects, and all parts, of the ocean, not just the surface that we can see.
This year, we encourage you to reach out to young people in your community and help inspire them for the 2012 theme Youth: the Next Wave for Change.
