Five (Easy) Ways to Act Today to Protect the Ocean

Happy World Oceans Day! Today is a perfect day to make a positive change for the Ocean. We've selected five projects you can contribute to. From small changes in your every day behavior to protecting marine life species, there are many ways you can contribute.

Adopt a manta!

Mantas have unique spot pattern on their underside that can be used to identify individuals. If you see a manta while diving or snorkeling, you can contribute to identify it by submitting pictures in Manta Matcher, a database gathering hundreds of them. With these identifications, scientists can better understand these species and act to protect them.

👍 No need to wait for your next immersion to contribute, you can already adopt a manta! on Manta Matcher

Manta Matcher was created in partnership with Marine Megafauna Foundation, and especially with Dr. Andrea Marshall, pioneering scientist on manta rays.

👍 If you are interested in better understanding how an NGO can act to protect marine species and involve local communities, you can spend 3 days volunteering with Marine Megafauna Foundation in Tofo, Mozambique.

At SeaCrush, we love mantas so we've adopted a female reef manta, Stella! She is a Nusa Penida 'resident' that means we often receive notifications she's been spoted. 💙

Carry along a stainless-steel water bottle

Reducing as much as possible single use plastic is probably the easiest thing you can act upon today. Carry a reusable grocery bag everywhere you go, say 'no' to straws in cafes and restaurants - no need to wait until 2042 like the UK!

Invest in a stainless steel water bottle. They are kinder to your body and to the environment. Every time you fill it to go outside, you are potentially saving a plastic bottle (and yourself from dehydration! 😉)

👍 where to buy Pachamama stainless steel water bottle

Buy only reef-friendly sunscreen

Every year, between 6,000 and 14,000 tons of sunscreen washes off into the sea. It accelerates coral bleaching and is also toxic to certain fish species. Hawai and Bonaire have already banished non-reef friendly sunscreen. Show the lead and do it too!

👍 We have selected some reef-friendly sunscreen in a previous article: Four Reef-Safe Sunscreens That Are Good the Skin and the Environment

Pick up trash wherever you go

Five Asian countries - China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam and Thailand - accounted for up to 60 percent of the plastic waste leaking into the ocean, according to a 2015 report by the environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.

👍 Join a local movement, and pick up trash whenever you see some. If you're in South East Asia, participate in Trash Hero. All these actions contribute to raise awareness of how important it is to consume responsibly.

Buy cleansing products without microbeads

Sometimes it is the smallest particules that make most damage. Did you know a single cleansing product can contain as many as 360,000 microbeads? These microbeads are very harmful to many marine species, especially filter-feeding ones. They also are more and more present in our body.

Choose instead natural, biodegradable alternatives such as brands using jojoba beads, apricot kernels, ground nutshells and salt.

👍 If you’re unsure, check the label using this app: Clean beauty and avoid products containing polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and nylon.