For many of us, being at the beach feels like a little slice of heaven. Soft sand, calming rolling waves, and the feeling of crisp clear air are just a few reasons why we love the sea.
While you may not always be able to see it, our oceans love and care for us too in so many different ways. Not only are our precious oceans home to hundreds of thousands of fascinating marine life (with 91% of species still yet to be discovered), but they also provide us with all of the necessities for us to live happy and healthy lives.
Our oceans help to regulate our climate and provide us with oxygen, nutritional goodness as well as medicinal ingredients which can be used to treat a number of serious ailments.
There’s plenty of ways that you can show your love and appreciation to the ocean, even if you don't live by the beach. To prove this, we’ve come up with five ways to help you get involved in taking care of our coasts, no matter where you are in the world. If we love our oceans, they will love us back!
Follow A Sustainable Diet
Not everyone can follow a completely meat-free diet, but if you can, the benefits for both yourself and our oceans are far-reaching. By switching to a plant-based diet, you can help to stop the practice of overfishing and reduce the amount of ocean acidification caused by carbon from agricultural practices.
In turn, this can help to restabilise the ecosystems in our oceans and preserve the beauty of our oceans’ habitats. On a wider level, you’ll even be able to support healthier rivers and lakes, as the foods in plant-based diets require a drastically lower amount of fertilisers and pesticides.
Adopt Ocean Friendly Habits
Helping to love our oceans back can be as simple as conserving water and reducing our carbon footprint. Here are a few easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint:
- Conserve energy - Try to remember to switch off lights when you leave a room. Where possible, try to insulate your home or wear warmer clothes in the house rather than turning your heating on full.
- Drive less - If it’s not possible to walk or cycle to work, try carpooling with another colleague. Or, if your employer allows it, you could try requesting to work from home a few days a week to cut down on travel.
- Reduce, reuse, recycle - To follow these three important “R”s, try reducing your amount of household waste, reusing items for as long as possible and recycling items wherever and whenever you can.
By making small, incremental changes to our lifestyles, we can all contribute to the global movement of cleaner, happier and healthier oceans.
Support Organisations Working To Protect Our Oceans
There are so many fantastic ocean organisations and institutes that work hard every day to protect our oceans and marine wildlife. If you have the time, try to get in touch with charities to volunteer such as attending a beach clean-up near you or even scuba diving! The more ocean advocates in the world we have, the better.
Opt For Plastic-Free Alternatives
Between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic pieces are discarded into our beautiful oceans every year. Despite this, many companies are still not providing plastic-free alternatives to their products.
With NothingFishy, you can feel great knowing that all of our products come with a reusable glass jar and 100% recyclable packaging materials with absolutely no plastic involved; a promise that will never change.
Use Ocean Friendly Products
To best safeguard our oceans and the unique creatures that call it home, always try to avoid buying single-use plastics such as plastic bags, straws, cotton bud sticks, coffee cups, and food containers. It’s also important to avoid cosmetics that contain shark squalane and jewellery made from coral or sea turtle shells. Remember, the smallest of choices can make the biggest waves!