World Aquatic Day

Taylor

Apr 3

World Aquatic Animal Day is an annual day dedicated to aquatic animals. The event was launched for the first time on April 3, 2020 and is a project of the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and the Animal Law Clinic at the Centre for Animal Law Studies, based at the Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, USA. Each year, students of the university take the lead at raising global awareness about aquatic animals, from fish to mammals to sea conservation initiatives across the world.

You can watch their 2022 webinar online here. Now it is obviously very biased towards American law and American research projects and initiatives but it is still very informative and really interesting to see what work is being done. There is also a very interesting and very informative resource pack readily available from their 2022 conference which can be viewed here.

What can we do to protect aquatic animals?

Education is key. Now every aquatic animal will have their own issues that affect them and these issues can vary massively between species of animal. I would say the best place to start is to pick one aquatic animal that you are genuinely interested in - sharks, tuna, dolphins, orcas, plankton, jellyfish, the list really is endless! - and research what issues are affecting their survival and their wellbeing. Without a doubt, a lot of the issues will overlap. The way our world is nowadays means that every action we make against one area of the world will have a major effect on other parts of the world.

As well as research, you can take other steps to help aquatic animals. You can sign petitions, attend protests, attend educational webinars to meet other likeminded individuals and you can also raise awareness in anyway you think best. If you live near the seaside, take a camera or a sketchbook down and document the creatures that you can find along the beach. You can set up a fundraiser to raise money for sea conservation programmes and organisations. Anyway you choose to get involved will make a lot of difference to the cause and will help spread the message for sea wildlife conservation and protection.

What is the biggest issue effecting aquatic animals?

In my research, the biggest issue effecting all wildlife within the ocean, is pollution, both chemical and physical. No doubt everyone has seen the pictures of a turtle stuck in a fishing net, or a crab caught in a plastic bottle. Plastic pollution is a massive pollutant of the ocean, and surprisingly (or not depending on your levels of awareness around this issue) one of the biggest causes of plastic pollution is commercial fishing. Not only does overfishing cause massive species loss, but nets are often thrown into the ocean as litter and they do not degrade. They float through the ocean and cause massive species loss and damage to habitats, from trapping animals in their holes so they cannot escape, or by getting stuck around animals and cause physical damage to them.

Commercial fishing also has a major problem in that they cannot select which fish to catch, meaning that any and all sea creatures can be caught in their nets. Often times, whales and dolphins are caught in these nets and will drown. They are then thrown back into the ocean as they are nothing more than collateral damage in the eyes of commercial fisheries.

What can I do to help sea creatures?

Aside from the pointers already mentioned above, one of the biggest things you can do to help ocean animals is to stop eating them. By removing sea animals from your plate, you are decreasing the demand for seafood and thus decreasing the need for more commercial liners to troll the ocean for such large quantities of fish.

You can also do your best to refuse, reduce and recycle any plastic that you come across. Now this may be impossible to always avoid - such as is the way society has been set up these days - but for every plastic bottle you refuse to buy, that is one less bottle that will end up on the ocean floor. For every plastic bag you do not buy, that is one less turtle with a plastic bag in it's stomach (plastic bags look like jellyfish in the water, and many turtles mistake plastic bags for their favourite jellyfish meal). For every plastic tray that you reuse or recycle at home, that is one less piece of litter that will end up in the ocean.

Some of my favourite resources

I am always looking for new resources to learn from and I have found the following to be very helpful and very informative. I am not connected to any of these in any way - I am purely sharing in the hopes that they can help you guys all better understand ocean conservation and sea animal welfare.

Sharkbytes - a shark scientist who discusses all aspects of shark welfare and conservation. He also does some very entertaining videos where he critiques shark films and rates them on believability and accuracy. Very fun videos in a really easy to digest manner, and you can tell he has a lot of passion for his work just from how much love he shows when he speaks about all species of sharks.

Sea Shepard - a charity organisation that focuses on animal welfare and ocean conservation. They also have a fleet of ocean liners that they use to monitor and document commercial liners that attempt to fish in protected waters, or try to cross international borders to harvest fish that they cannot. Their newsletter provides regular updates regarding animal welfare and international improvements on ocean conservation.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation charity - I have genuinely followed this charity since I was a child. I was one of those little girls that was obsessed with dolphins (shocker, I know) and for my birthday one year my parents adopted me a dolphin through WDC. His name was Whiskey. WDC still offer adoption packages and you will receive regular updates on where your dolphin (or whale) is and how they are doing, as well as updates on any big conservation breakthroughs they have had. They also operate globally, and you can even select where you wish to adopt a dolphin. Whiskey was based in the Moray Firth along the coast of England and little 8 year old me was very excited that I could have potentially visited him.

Marine Conservation Society - based in the UK, their newsletters are very informative and they also share uplifting news regularly so it is not always doom and gloom! They also share information on local conservation groups across the UK which people can easily join for a day of beach combing. They share photos of sea creatures that provide more insight and awareness to creatures, as well as simply being beautiful pictures to admire.