Did you know that today, June 8th, is World Oceans Day?
I’m happy to serve as a Dawn Wildlife Ambassador since I’m already a fan of using Dawn to clean way more than dishes in my own home.
I also love Dawn’s commitment to working with wildlife rescue organizations. This relationship began after bird rescuers determined that Dawn was by far the most safe-while-effective product for cleaning birds affected by oil spills.
Through working with Dawn, I’ve also been educated on the impact everyday life in my town (that’s hours from a beach) has on the oceans.
This trash monster sculpture at the Marine Mammal Center in California includes trash you’d expect to find in the ocean like nets and ropes, but also other trash that makes its way to the ocean from places where people never hear waves crashing or smell the tang of salty air.
Before my trip to the Marine Mammal Center with Dawn, I’d never thought about the fact that the garbage I see flying around my street on a windy trash day ends up in the ocean.
But it does. Trash on the street becomes trash in the gutter which becomes trash in creeks and rivers and eventually litters the ocean.
So how can you participate in World Oceans Day if you’re landlocked?
Go on an ocean saving nature walk in your own neighborhood! Talk to your kids about their ability to impact ocean wildlife by their actions where you live.
Remind them that when you tell them to pick up their trash and put it in the trash can, that’s the first step to not contributing to the trash that litters the ocean and often injures wildlife when they eat it or get tangled in it.
Windy Tuesdays are the worst in my neighborhood. Tuesday is trash day and wind blows trash cans out into the streets. So even something as simple as properly closing the trash bags and cans is important to keep the streets (and therefore the gutters and ultimately the oceans) free of trash.
Instead of while you’re wishing you were on the beach, take a bag with you on a family walk today, pick up any trash you see, and talk about how you’re not only helping your own neighborhood, but the oceans of the world!
And watch these Dawn Helps Save Wildlife videos together! I had the privilege of attending a release, and I can tell you that the people working with these animals LOVE what they do!
I’m a paid Dawn Wildlife Ambassador, but all thoughts and opinions are mine. Dawn partners with the International Bird Rescue and The Marine Mammal Center to form the Dawn Saves Wildlife initiative.
--Nony
Thanks for the reminder, that we impact more than we realize!
I love how you bring this forward, since this is one of the things that are really important to me! One might think that the ocean is some endless abyss that will absorb everything you trow at it, but it isn’t!
I live at the other side of the atlantic, close by the end of an arm of the Golf Stream. My family have a vacation house on the outermost shore, and we really get to see how much garbage the sea brings in every single year.
The last few years we have been working hard to clean the area, and last summer we finnaly got “our” island (incuding breaking up the vegetation to pick up the old stuff buried in the ground). This spring we almost cried, seing how much had come in over the winter. Fortunatly it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, as it was all on the surface. I guess it’s as with cleaning, it gets easier when it is only a year worth of junk instead of decades. Still, we filled at least 5 garbage bags and also had some larger things, only with what had come in during the winter.
One of the plasics we found most of in numbers (not counting little broken down bits of big stuff) were q-tips (without the cotton). It was so numerous that my dad asked a friend in the marine department of the uni. Apparantly, many people flush q-tips down the toilet, and the sewer cleaning plants are unable to catch them. Thus most end up in the ocean, and since they are light they float and get washed up on shore. Please dont flush q-tips!
We have also begun on the other islands, starting with the big stuff. This spring 3 people spent 2 hours filling our 10 foot boat to the brim on one island, and it was hardly visible. Hopefully we can do more in the summer, when we are able to spend more time there.
All this plastic does harm the wildlife, I have seen proof of it. We have also done some tests, and found out that the soil on the side of the island with most garbage is full of toxins, which scares us. What does that signify for the animals, plants and organims that livein and of that soil, and in the water those toxins came from?
This is so fascinating, and upsetting of course! Thank you for sharing your personal story. Those always stick in my brain better than facts and figures!