Today, June the 8th, is the World Oceans Day.

The tagline of this event is healthy ocean, healthy planet.
I couldn’t say it in a straighter, simpler way.

My long-standing fascination with the oceans is well documented.
I came this >< far from taking a second degree in Oceanography¹.
The sea still features heavily both in my “serious work” (in which I study fossil plankton to help define the state of health of ancient and modern seas) and in my “moonlighting” work as a writer.
The sea is often part of my stories.
But I don’t want to plug my stories today.

Today I’d like to find the words to impress on the unaware how the oceans are the tru, vast, scary and wonderful unexplored space that is closer to us, easier to get into, and more intricately interwoven with our lives as individuals, and as a species.
Kill the sea, and you are killing us.
Try and see it as a very utilitarian, self-centered, pragmatic concern – we want to survive, we need to keep the oceans healthy.
And we want to explore the depths.

Check out the official website of the World Oceans Day initiative – maybe there’s an event close to where you are living.
Check out the videos, take action, if you will.
Or just take a look at the sea, and try and imagine what we might be losing.
And check out this infographic..