Buy tickets for Disney’s Oceans, and you’ll see sobering footage of a shopping cart on the ocean floor—a sure sign of consumerism run amok.

This simple image conveys an incredibly important message: We’re destroying our environment. Climate change may garner more headlines, but ocean pollution remains a considerable concern. 

What can you do to reduce your impact? 

1. Don’t Litter. Litter is a huge contributor to ocean pollution because it ends up in storm drains that eventually empty into rivers and streams. Even if you live miles away from the ocean, your litter will likely contribute to water pollution.
2. Follow the Three R’s. How committed are you to the environmental mantra reduce, reuse, recycle? Your answer has a direct effect on the health of our oceans. Failure to embrace the three R’s leads to ocean pollution and mile-high landfills.
3. Increase Your Sewage Awareness. Anything that goes down your dishwasher, washing machine, toilet and sink drains will eventually make its way into the ocean. This often leads to oxygen depletion that harms marine life, as well as nutrient loading, which occurs when excessive nitrogen and phosphorous are deposited into the ocean’s ecosystem. Sewage also increases ocean bacteria and parasites, creating a ripple effect that endangers the fishing and tourism industries.
4. Understand the Dangers of Toxic Pollutants. Arguably, nothing is more detrimental to the world’s oceans than toxic pollutants, which have been linked to birth defects in wildlife and may contribute to cancer in humans. Lead and mercury collect in marine animals’ tissues, causing reproductive problems and nerve damage. World Wildlife Federation researchers have found that other wildlife, including polar bears and frogs, have experienced decreased fertility, thyroid dysfunction and demasculinization (in males)—a result of exposure to pesticides and industrial chemicals. Other toxic ocean pollutants include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are typically used to manufacture electrical equipment and have been known to cause reproduction problems in marine life. Genetic abnormalities have also been seen in marine animals exposed to polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are caused by burning wood and coal, as well as oil pollution.
5. Participate in Community Cleanup Programs. Many seaside communities offer volunteer beach clean-up programs to keep their beaches clean and safe. By volunteering for such programs, you’re not only doing your part, but you’re also giving yourself an excuse to spend a day at the beach. 

For Your Organic Bookshelf: The Culture of Flushing: A Social and Legal History of Sewage

Today is World Water Day, and if you live along one of the nation’s coastlines, you’ve probably noticed that you’re not alone when going for a swim. 

Ocean pollution is a major problem, and litter is a primary culprit. While laws have been designed to prevent people from dumping their trash into the sea, they haven’t eradicated the problem. Garbage still finds its way into our oceans and threatens marine life. 

After last year’s annual Ocean Conservancy International Coastal Cleanup, volunteers in more than 100 countries and 42 U.S. states had removed more than 6.8 million pounds of trash. As Greenpeace notes, only a fraction of the 300 billion pounds of plastic produced globally is recycled, with massive quantities dumped in landfills or oceans. 

When exposed to the sun, wind and ocean currents, plastic degrades and is often mistaken for food. Dolphins, sharks, whales and other marine animals die painful suffocation deaths when carelessly discarded plastics become lodged in their throats or digestive systems. Seemingly innocuous pop tabs from aluminum cans and plastic six-pack wrappers are common killers. Simply cutting up your six-pack wrappers before discarding them is one small step toward protecting sea life. 

You’re not off the hook if you live in a landlocked state, as litter along streets often ends up in storm drains and rivers, eventually navigating its way into the ocean. Once there, it can survive for decades. 

Reducing litter and volunteering for cleanup programs are highly effective ways to safeguard our oceans. Click here to volunteer for a coastal cleanup program. 

Free Online Resource: Guide to Marine Debris 

For Your Organic Bookshelf: Seasick: Ocean Change and the Extinction of Life on Earth 

Photo: Hans Sautter/Aurora Photos, courtesy of Ocean Conservancy

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has launched a national campaign that asks top U.S. chefs and well-known foodies to take a Save Our Seafood pledge.

In signing the pledge, chefs agree to stop using fish and seafood on the aquarium’s Seafood Watch “Avoid” list.

Let’s support restaurants whose chefs have signed on, including:

• Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, Chicago)
• Susan Spicer (Bayona, New Orleans)
• Rick Moonen (rm seafood, Las Vegas)
• Michelle Bernstein (Michy’s, Miami)
• Suzanne Goin (Lucques, Los Angeles)
• Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger (Border Grill and Ciudad, Los Angeles)
• Michel Nischan (The Dressing Room, Westport, CT)

For a full list of chefs and foodies who have signed the pledge, click here.

Chefs who are interested in signing on can call (877) 229-9990 (toll-free) or e-mail the aquarium.

Suggested Reading

• Good News About Our Sustainable Seafood Supply
• Which Fish Is Fit to Eat?
• Border Grill and Ciudad: Serving It Up Bold, Spicy and Organic

Turning the Tide: The State of Seafood, a new report from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, reveals that international efforts to protect the ocean’s ecosystem and our sustainable seafood supply are paying off.

Chalk it up to “a growing consensus on how best to manage fisheries and fish-farming operations, and new commitments by consumers, major buyers and the fishing community,” the report notes.

“Ocean life is still in decline, and we clearly need to take urgent action to turn things around,” says Julie Packard, the aquarium’s executive director. “The good news is that we know what it will take and that key players are working more closely than ever to solve the problems. I’m confident that we can and will create a future with healthy oceans.”

Recent improvements in seafood management include: 

• A scientific study that unified marine ecologists and fisheries management scientists on a set of principles for restoring ocean ecosystems and commercial fish populations
• Significant new commitments from major seafood buyers—including retailers like Walmart and North America’s largest food-service companies—to shift to sustainable seafood offerings
• Growth in the supply of sustainable seafood certified by reputable international organizations, notably the Marine Stewardship Council
• Policies adopted by governments around the world to better manage fisheries and fish-farming; reduce the rate at which wildlife is caught and killed accidentally in fishing gear; and protect critical ocean habitat vital to maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems

Turning the Tide: The State of Seafood includes a Super Green list of wild and farmed seafood choices, prepared collaboratively with the Environmental Defense Fund and the Harvard School of Public Health. The aquarium will update the list every 2 years.

Click here to download a sustainable seafood guide for your area.

Two half-hour documentaries will debut Wednesday evening on Planet Green: Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff: Troubled Waters (10 p.m. ET/PT) and Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification (10:30 p.m. ET/PT), produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council and narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver.

As the documentaries reveal, our oceans, freshwater rivers, lakes and streams have become increasingly plagued by dead zones, toxic runoff and dying wildlife. Fish populations are in serious decline, and carbon dioxide pollution is making the oceans more acidic.

Woodruff shows how banks and shores in every part of the world are facing similar threats. Among his interviewees is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chief prosecuting attorney for the environmental group Riverkeeper.

Acid Test explains that since the Industrial Revolution, the ocean has absorbed 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning fossil fuels, causing a 30% increase in ocean acidity. Sea creatures’ shells dissolve, threatening the ocean’s ecosystem.

For Your Organic Bookshelf: Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World

Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images

“Every year, the ocean just seems a little bit smaller,” says Dr. Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, an associate professor of biology at the University of Miami and principal investigator of the Earthwatch Institute’s Coastal Ecology of the Bahamas project. “There is more trash washed up on the beach with every tide in all shapes, materials and languages. There are fewer fish and conch around for local consumption and greater fears as new information is circulated about health threats in contaminated coastal waters.”

The Earthwatch Institute recruits global volunteers to support scientific field research. You can work alongside leading scientists, conducting research and learning about what it takes to protect a sustainable environment. Earthwatch is now celebrating its 35th anniversary, and more than 4,000 volunteers from all 50 states and 79 countries participated in field research last year. Can you think of a better way for those of us who support organic living to spend some vacation time? Click here to find out about upcoming volunteer projects—from exploring wildlife habitats in Kenya to conducting field experiments in Costa Rica to improve the ecological sustainability of shade-grown coffee.

“We need to act like our actions matter, because they do matter,” says Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, president-elect of the International Sea Turtle Society and a former principal investigator of an Earthwatch sea turtle project in Baja California, Mexico. “We must act like our actions affect others, because they do affect others. We need to evolve our ways as if our life depended on it, because our life does depend on it. To take on the pressing issues facing our ocean planet, we need more creative, innovative and progressive-minded people who understand that it’s one ocean, indivisible, after all.”

According to the Earthwatch Institute, most of the world’s 17 major ocean fisheries are in decline, coastal habitats are disappearing at an alarming rate, and climate change and pollution are harming coral ecosystems possibly beyond recovery.

“Consider that a single molecule of seawater can and will circulate around the entire world ocean over the course of seven years,” says Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, president-elect of the International Sea Turtle Society and a former principal investigator for an Earthwatch sea turtle project in Mexico. “That means that what we do on one coast does matter to the people living on another coast half a world away. Animals like sea turtles, elephant seals, bluefin tuna and white sharks connect the ocean through their thousand-mile migrations.” (Please check out Dr. Nichols’ compelling essay, One Ocean, Indivisible.)

“The world ocean is in trouble, and if we do not solve some of its myriad problems, our beloved whales and dolphins will continue to spiral into ever greater danger,” adds Dr. Bernd Würsig of Texas A&M, a principal investigator of Earthwatch’s New Zealand Dolphins project. “This is our greatest challenge, from regional over-fishing of salmon in the North Pacific to all-encompassing issues of global warming. Are we, as humans on this fragile Earth, up to the challenges of saving a significant part of this huge ecosystem?”

Click here to find ways to celebrate World Ocean Day. For a list of Earthwatch events around the country, click here (PDF file). And please read Organic Authority’s feature article on which fish are fit to eat.

Photo by Peter Dutton/Earthwatch Institute: A just-hatched leatherback sea turtle heads for the sea. Earthwatch volunteers are needed to monitor sea turtles on the beaches of St. Croix, Trinidad and Costa Rica.