This is an important week for all of us.

From 5th to 9th June in New York, the United Nations is holding its first ever high level meeting specifically to address ocean conservation.  Key discussions will take place about targets to:  

• Reduce pollution and debris;
• Protect marine eco-systems;
• End overfishing and destructive fishing practices; 
• Minimise the effects of ocean acidification

 It's about time.

There’s always a lot of talk about preserving the rainforests on our planet and very little about ocean conservation.  This must mean marine conservationists feel they are banging their heads against a brick wall.   

To make matters worse, many people are very disconnected to ocean life.   A day at the seaside means ice-creams, sun tan lotion, swimming, trying to get all the sand out of your gear before you lug it back into your car again, lying lazily in the sun, going for a paddle, splashing about in the water, surfboarding in the sea, playing games and trying to top up your tan without ending up looking like the person a few metres away from you who is as red as a tomato. 

We may fleetingly look out over the ocean so blue, and wonder what lies beyond; and equally feel quite powerless when we see this huge chunk of water drifting in and out before us. We may be indifferent to its state - what does it matter what state the ocean is in?

So long as the coastline is clear for us to swim in and paddle about in, that’s fair enough.   We’ve got tuna sandwiches, the tuna having been bought from a kiosk or the supermarket, and we’re enjoying ourselves – never mind how it was caught or where it came from, or what the fish itself had eaten before it was caught. And in any case, what can we personally do to make a difference?  We may feel that on our own, we’re all too powerless to make a difference. 

However....

We do however want to be sure that when we go to the beach to enjoy the sea air and the sea itself, to meet friends, to spend family time together, we don’t want to find ourselves sitting in the middle of a rubbish dump.

 We don’t want to spend ages looking for a spot on the beach that’s rubbish-free – forgetting what could be under the sand.  We don’t want the food we put into our bodies to contain tiny bits of plastic that the fish we’re eating swallowed before we did. 

We don’t want to sit next to other people’s wet-wipes they used in the bathroom which have ended up in our sewage systems, or discover we’ve put our picnic stuff on someone’s toothbrush, cigarette lighter or the cotton wool bud they used to clean out their ears before chucking it away.