2024 World Oceans Day celebration: Awaken new depths

The United Nations General Assembly by its resolution 63/111 of December 5, 2008 designated June 8 of every year as the World Oceans Day. 

The celebration reflects the importance of the ocean for all life forms on earth and has been selected to promote public awareness and actions for a sustainable oceans management.

The objective of the celebration is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for ocean’s protection, mobilise and unite the world’s population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Awaken New Depths”. To appreciate this year’s theme, there is the need for collaboration between governments, organisations and individuals to put the ocean first, discover how the ocean is more valuable than it may seem, preserve the health of the oceans by reflecting on past actions and establishing new measures that will bring the ocean back into balance, generate a new wave of excitement towards cherishing and protecting the ocean, and giving it new life by taking actions locally and on a global scale inspiring change in our management and utilisation of the world’s oceans.

Water

All life forms on earth, including human life, depend on water. Even though the ocean is incredibly huge (and our complete reliance on it), we have only investigated about 10 per cent, thus very little is known about it in totality, the impacts or effects of human actions remain a mystery. However, it is well known that the ocean is in grave danger.

It is, therefore, not appropriate for us to adopt the stand, “out of sight, out of mind”. We must drastically alter our relationship with the ocean. To motivate widespread momentum for the ocean, we need to awaken new depths.

This year’s theme is intended for us to discover how earth is more than it may seem and generate a new wave of excitement towards cherishing and protecting the ocean and the entirety of our blue planet.

Statement

In keeping up with the statement made by President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo at the 2023 National Summit on our Blue Economy, this year’s celebration is imperative as it serves as a wake-up call to Ghanaians to explore new depths to deepen strategic partnerships among stakeholders and the need to build a progressive coalition for an enhanced ocean health and the accelerated development of our coastal communities and country at large.

For us in Ghana, in observing the day, the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other key stakeholders will like to re-emphasise the need  to protect and restore the world’s ocean that connects us all, increase public education and awareness creation on sustainable oceans management practices, facilitate dialogues across various topics including ocean and climate nexus, science and innovation, capacity building, biodiversity ,traditional and local community knowledge among others, undertake exhibitions, media engagements and a press release to advance efforts to awaken and explore new depths to achieve a sustainable national oceans governance, protection and the sustainable development goals 14 and 6 for an enhanced ocean health.

Ocean tides are changing radically, hence the need to generate newer and deeper waves of excitement towards cherishing and protecting our ocean and the entirety of our blue planet.

For us as individuals, institutions, communities, Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs), Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the nation as a whole, we must unite in exploring new depths of managing, protecting and sustaining our ocean to achieve a bluer, safer and better lifestyle.

Let’s therefore use this day as a catalyst for social change; to underscore humanity’s connectivity to the ocean, illustrate its cross-sector potential, awaken new depths to chart a path to a cleaner, healthier and sustainable ocean for both ourselves and for posterity’s sake. #WorldOceansDay #SaveOurOceans #OceanPlastics

The writer is Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI)/Member of Parliament, Mfantseman