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World Ocean Day

History and significance

World Oceans Day is an international day that takes place annually on 8th June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. World Oceans Day was officially recognised by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fosters public interest in the management of the ocean and its resources.

The Brundtland Commission (also known as the World Commission on Environment and Development) noted in the 1987 Brundtland Report that the ocean sector lacked a strong voice compared to other sectors.

In the early years of coordinated efforts by The Ocean Project, with World Ocean Network, events numbered in the dozens. During this time, www.WorldOceansDay.org launched, to help promote the event and generate more involvement through the dissemination of resources, ideas, and tools free for everyone to use to celebrate World Oceans Day. In December 2008, the UN General Assembly passed a Declaration to officially recognise the Day.

Themes

A few themes are given below:

    "Our Oceans, Our Responsibilities".

    "Our Oceans: Opportunities and Challenges"

    "Our Oceans: greening our future"

    "Oceans & People"

     "Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet"

    "Our Oceans, Our Future"

    "Clean our Ocean!"

    "Gender and Oceans"

    "Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean"