My journey with ocean conservation began when I was in college. I was scrolling through Instagram when a video popped up by One Ocean Diving talking about shark finning. I had never heard of the shark fin trade before and right away, I was enthralled by it. Suddenly my life's purpose became helping to save sharks and the ocean. In my journey, I came to the realization that I couldn't find a beach that wasn't littered in Micro plastics, fishing nets or other marine debris here in Hawai'i. So I got to researching and what I found out, was astounding.
It was impossible for me to keep up with all the issues surrounding the ocean, but the most concerning to me, that I decided to center my focus in on, are shark fishing, over fishing and the commercial fishing trade and marine debris.
Every journey into ocean conservation is different
Photo by @taylork.sea
Millions of sharks are killed every single year due to the shark finning trade. That doesn't include deaths caused by bycatch, longline fishing or other factors. And sharks serve as the white blood cells of the sea- they are vital to the health of the ocean. This number is not sustainable.
There is a gyre of marine debris that is 2x the size of Texas between Hawaii and California called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It's estimated to hold up 1.1-3.6 trillion plastic pieces and 46% of the gyre being fishing nets.
Here are some examples
I am not a marine biologist. I'm a girl who found a love and passion for the ocean and saw the damages being done first-hand. Using my career as a photographer and my background in communications, marketing and advocacy, paired with my love for the ocean, I am dedicated to creating change by raising awareness through education and providing sustainable and realistic solutions.
My goal is to provide tools and resources to you so you can create impactful change in your own life, make informed decisions, cultivate awareness surrounding these issues and change your own habitual consumerism practices.
— leo buscaglia
“Change is the end result of all true learning.”
"We are locked into our suffering and our pleasures are the seal"
-Leonard Cohen
Sea Shepherd's put it perfectly "What the great majority of people do not understand is this: unless we stop the degradation of our oceans, marine ecological systems will begin collapsing and when enough of them fail, the ocean will die". The death of the ocean will be detrimental to health of the planet and obviously, our health too.
We desperately need more people who care about the planet and the ocean to come together and start taking action. Here are just a few reasons why you should care about what we're doing to the ocean.
Why should you care about the ocean?
The Ocean is responsible for nearly 70% of the air we breathe
I know there's a lot to dive into here. So I've put in the work and the homework for you!
Learn With me
I focus primarily on sharks and fishing as well as marine debris. These were the things that shocked me, woke me up and started my ocean conservation journey.
Over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently take up home in the ocean. One of the largest garbage patches in the world is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (the “island” is two times the size of Texas), which exists between California and Hawaii. The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing and scaling technologies to rid the oceans of plastic.
Over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently take up home in the ocean. One of the largest garbage patches in the world is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (the “island” is two times the size of Texas), which exists between California and Hawaii. The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing and scaling technologies to rid the oceans of plastic.
30x30 is a campaign to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030. The ocean covers 70% of the world’s surface and only a very small percentage of it lies within a highly protected zone. Join the movement!
Mao Mana’s mission is to serve as a platform for shark research, community outreach, sustainable ecotourism training, positive human-shark coexistence promotion, and ensuring the enforcement of the protection of sharks in French Polynesia. They have on-going projects enforcing these initiatives.
Project Hiu aims to assist coastal communities subject to overfishing and exploitation by providing alternative economic development and sustainable incomes to these communities.
