World Oceans Day 2019
Parley celebrates the planet’s most important ecosystem with a week of collaboration, discussion and action
Every June 8th, Parley assembles leading voices from the global oceans movement to educate, inspire and ask: where next? More than just another day on the global calendar, World Oceans Day is an opportunity to reflect and refocus our energy – looking at where we’ve collectively succeeded and where we need to take the oceans movement in the year ahead.
This year, we mobilized the largest global cleanup in our history, with over 50 individual events taking place across the week around World Oceans Day – from a river cleanup in South Africa to mangrove cleanups in Australia to an underwater debris removal mission in Indonesia. In New York, we launched an unprecedented number of new collaborations and gathered ocean scientists, activists and governments to check in on the state of our oceans and inspire lasting change.
Hosted at Vice Media’s green-roofed headquarters in Williamsburg, we welcomed an audience of all ages for a thought-provoking series of talks by some of the most legendary names in oceanography, marine mammal research and high seas activism.
After opening remarks, Parley founder Cyrill Gutsch explained the urgent need for action – with record amounts of marine plastic pollution entering our oceans, new links to climate change and worrying research into human health impacts highlighting the urgency of our mission.
Parley was founded after a 2012 meeting between Cyrill and Captain Paul Watson, Founder of Sea Shepherd, who next took the stage with an impassioned call to action for all the non-human creatures that make up our blue planet’s life support system.
Journalist and author Ian Urbina next previewed a film based on his series The Outlaw Ocean, which has been acquired by Netflix and Leonardo DiCaprio, and spoke about the challenges of policing the vast, ungoverned expanses of the planet’s oceans. Legendary whale researcher Dr. Roger Payne spoke about his work with whale song and called for renaissance of our bond with these incredible ocean dwellers
We celebrated some leading women in the Oceans movement
Fittingly for the 2019 global World Oceans Day theme of Gender and Oceans, we welcomed a strong panel of female speakers drawn from academia, the fashion world and government to discuss marine life, how plastic pollution is affecting our oceans and our health – and how we can reconnect people with the sea.
Dr. Sylvia Earle began with sobering look at the changes she has witnessed over her long career, of which over 7000 hours was spent underwater with the creatures that call the oceans home. Beyond simply Marine Protected Areas, "we need Marine Peace Areas" she urged.
Environmental health scientist Dr. Susan Shaw warned of the dangers of marine plastic pollution on human health, warning “We all need to be afraid, we're in a dangerous time now. It's not just the marine mammals that are at risk of going extinct, it's us."
Her Excellency Ms Thilmeeza Hussain, Ambassador of the Maldives to the United States and the Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations, shared stories from her homeland and warned of the disaster we are facing. Working with Parley, the Maldives is positioned to become a leading nation in the movement and a proving ground for new ideas, technologies and conservation initiatives.
Dr. Sarah-Jeanne Royer explained her research into how plastics break apart in the oceans, and her recent findings that plastics emit methane and other greenhouses gases as they degrade. “As plastic breaks down, more and more marine organisms are able to eat the pieces,” she told the audience. “This is not the only problem, because as plastic degrades it also starts emitting greenhouse gases and chemical toxins that get released into the water.”
Anja Rubik spoke eloquently about the need to create a stronger emotional connection between the public and the oceans. "What happens next is in our hands," she said. "We have the ability to connect through storytelling – people connect to stories."
Carmen Danae Azor, Director of Parley Caribbean, introduced the recent In Praise of the Humpback collaboration between Parley and MIT and concluded the day with a six minute excerpt of humans and whales performing music together.
A special thank you to all our World Ocean Day speakers & collaborators
Carmen Danae Azor, Director of Parley Caribbean
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and Founder of Mission Blue
Her Excellency Ms Thilmeeza Hussain, Ambassador of the Maldives to the United States and the Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations
Dr. Roger Payne, Founder of Ocean Alliance
Dr. Sarah-Jeane Royer, Marine plastics scientist
Anja Rubik, Model and Activist
Dr. Susan Shaw, Environmental health scientist and Founder of the Shaw Institute
Ian Urbina, Author of The Outlaw Ocean
Captain Paul Watson, Founder of Sea Shepherd
Photography by Benjamin Lozovsky
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