Monthly Archives

May 2017

May 19
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Liz Cunningham and Her Passion for Rescue

By | Action today, Featured Post, In the News, Uncategorized, W2O Blog

“There’s no life without water-we all live in ocean country,” said Liz Cunningham at the Women Working for Oceans’ Heart of Hope: A Quest to Save Our Seas event last week. Liz delivered an inspiring message of hope to a full Imax Theatre at the New England Aquarium and challenged us to think about how we might use what she calls our “passion for rescue” in the effort to save our ocean.

“Active hope is something we do rather than have,” Liz remembers learning from the philosopher Joanna Macy. But how can we have hope when there is so much concern and worry about our blue planet? The answer from Liz is that you can never quit. Even when the math doesn’t hold up and it looks like the odds are against us, each and every one of us can choose a role, make a decision or maybe introduce a new way of thinking and act with our ocean in mind.

Liz presenting at the Imax Theatre at the New England Aquarium

Coming out from underneath a kayak in a near death accident, Liz had the will to live, but it was that passion for rescue that gave her the strength to defeat her despair.  “The passion for rescue,” she declares, “is a lived, breathing hope.” During that terrible accident, in the middle of the ocean, Liz had found her calling, in a way. It was at that moment of desperation, trapped and unable to escape, that the “audacious force” she called the “thing-thing”  inside of her gave her the strength to take a breath, break free and find the hope. During her recovery from the accident, her renewed passion for rescue set her on the course for writing Ocean Country about her search for the people who, despite impossible odds stacked against them, make the important choice of protecting our ocean.

Liz has taken this notion of active hope and simply states that “hope is something we do.”  At the Heart of Hope event, she shared those stories reinforcing to us that we all have a role to play and that each of us can make a difference when it comes to protecting our living ocean. What is your role? How can you champion for our ocean and have that passion for rescue? Connect with us at W2O and find out how you can be part of the movement to save our ocean. Join today and let us help you discover your passion for rescue.

“In the end, it’s really about inviting others to be a part of the hope on which our future hinges. Each and every one of us is needed. There’s a role for each of us to play,” says Liz.

May 18
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The 2017 W2O Ocean Spirit Award

By | Uncategorized, W2O Blog

The Sustainability Scholars of  Ipswich High School will tell you that living in a town so close to the ocean makes them respectful of their beautiful surroundings. “We learned to respect the ocean and our surroundings early on and it was never socially acceptable to litter”, one student tells W2O.  

Flash forward to these young women entering Lori LaFrance’s 11th-grade classroom where they were challenged to design their own curriculum and research a sustainability topic of their choosing to focus on for the year.  Students say that this sustainability class prepared them for college and beyond by encouraging them to take action on real-world problems and by placing them in situations of negotiation and communication with adults in civic engagement. Veteran teacher, Lori LaFrance, will humbly tell you that she is proud of the successful outcomes, but from the students, we know that a particularly thoughtful and talented teacher mentored them.

Five members of the Ipswich High School Sustainability class chose to tackle the issue of single-use plastic waste by writing a bylaw that would ban plastic carryout bags and polystyrene. For their incredible work, Nicole Whitten, a member of the Ipswich Recycling and Advisory Committee, nominated the five students and their teacher for the Women Working for Oceans 2017 Ocean Spirit Award because, she says, “They not only made their community aware of the dangers of plastic pollution in written form but with the help of their teacher, also researched, talked to local businesses to get their support, and then took action. The girls put together a convincing presentation explaining the dangers surrounding the use of both single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.  A few citizens in the audience had questions and raised concerns; the girls were prepared for these objections and answered with confidence and facts.”

The Ocean Spirit Award is given to the person or group that has encompassed Women Working for Ocean’s mission of educating and inspiring action using grassroots initiatives towards protecting our blue planet.

For their passionate work on the successful ban of single-use plastic and polystyrene in the town of Ipswich Massachusetts, Women Working for Oceans and their members are delighted to award the 2017 Ocean Spirit Award to:

Lori LaFrance and Ipswich High School’s Sustainability Scholars: Charlotte Howe, Claire McElwain, Carly Restuccia, Jillian Wall and Claire Werner.

 

 

May 16
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Sharks Keep Our Ocean Healthy. Act Now to Stop Shark Finning

By | Featured Post, Uncategorized, W2O Blog

Sharks! Why do these amazing creatures matter to the health of our ocean?

Sharks capture our attention. Have you seen the reports on the news about the “multiple sightings” of sharks near the beaches of New England and California?  It might seem that sharks are in abundance, that they are everywhere and that each year there are more of them. Not true. We are seeing more sharks because of increased seal populations and thanks to new techniques and technology (planes and sometimes drones) to track where they are and capture their image. But the reality is that over 100 million sharks, majestic ocean apex predators, are killed each year and most species are in decline.

Fishing, accidental bycatch and the demand for shark fins and other parts for sale are the major contributors to the shark’s decline.  Every year, up to 73 million shark fins end up on the global market, according to Oceana, “Sharks are caught and killed faster than they can reproduce. 70 % of the most common shark species involved in the fin trade are at a high or very high risk of extinction.”  The concept of protecting sharks to some might seem counterintuitive. Don’t they eat everything and contribute to the decline of other species in the ocean?  In truth, without a healthy shark population, we would be in real danger of losing the living ocean that we rely on for food, our economy and even the air we breathe.

The fact is, sharks matter more than you think.

 

Photo: Brian Skerry

The loss of sharks would set off a chain reaction in our ocean. According to Oceana, “The loss of sharks as top predators in the ecosystem allows the number of grouper, which eat other fish species, to increase. The groupers, in turn, reduce the number of herbivores such as parrotfish, blennies and gobies, in the echo system. Without these herbivores to eat algae off the coral, algae will take over the reef system.” In Oceana’s report Predators as Prey: Why Healthy Oceans Need Sharks, even shark’s proximity to some animals will cause them to behave when choosing feeding sites in ways that are healthier for oceans.

So move over and make way-sharks ultimately will keep us healthy if we protect them.

Take Action HERE!  Please support the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act. This bill prohibits the possession, purchase or sale of shark fins in the United States. Congressman Edward R. Royce (R-CA-39) and Congressman Gregorio Kalili Camacho Sablan (D-MP-At Large) the co-sponsors of the bill, urge you to support this bill because “As a nation, we have a responsibility to protect species that are being exploited to the point of extinction. We must set an example for the rest of the world by eliminating the shark fin trade in our country and no longer facilitating this illicit activity.”

 

May 14
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Join the “Bucket Brigade” to Save Our Ocean

By | Action today, Uncategorized, W2O Blog

Women Working for Oceans gathered at the Russell Senate Building in DC

“We all have a role to play,” explains W2O director Laura Parker Reorden, while speaking about how we can all contribute to protecting our ocean. “Similar to the olden days when each person carried and passed a bucket of water down a line to put out a fire in the community, she says, “We all need to play our part, like a bucket brigade for saving our ocean.” This past week, along with other ocean advocates from across the country, the “bucket brigade” from Women Working for Oceans headed to Washington D.C. for the Blue Vision Summit.  All participants in the conference and the subsequent hill day (speaking to Senators and Congress) had their own unique story to tell about where they come from, coastal or inland, north and south and what they considered are the most pressing ocean issues including overfishing, coastal resiliency, our “inland ocean,” marine protected areas and the effects of warming ocean and acidification, just to name a few. The list of concerns can seem daunting, but because we all want a healthy ocean and clean safe water, we are better together. Many voices from different places and backgrounds, youth and the seasoned activist-we were all inspired by the number of advocates knocking on the doors of our elected officials with the message that no matter where you live or how you vote, we all need a healthy ocean for our economy, our health and even for the air we breath.

Support Women Working for Oceans, become a member and learn more about how you can join the “bucket brigade” for a healthy ocean. Your voice matters. Good for you; Good for our ocean.