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Saturday: Free World Oceans Day event on St. Pete Beach
World Oceans Day is being celebrated this Saturday as Keep Pinellas Beautiful and Tradewinds Island Resort host an event with over 35 environmentally-related organizations that can teach anyone how they can help protect the oceans.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Rumfish Beach Resort Lawn, 6000 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach, attendees will meet and greet with organizations such as Blacktop Surf Shop, Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Sharks4Kids.
The mission of World Oceans Day, an international event that has been occurring for several decades, is to propel collective action for a healthy ocean and stable climate and collaborate youth leaders and a range of organizations.
This is the second year the event is being held locally, but with around two dozen more organizations in attendance this time around.
“It was such a big hit that we wanted to go bigger this year and that is exactly what we’ve done,” said Devon Francke, education program coordinator for Keep Pinellas Beautiful.
“The purpose of this event is to get the community involved in doing environmental-friendly things – essentially just kind of building a little bit of environmental sustainability into their everyday lives.”
This could range from learning about daily behaviors to help protect the environment, Francke added, or signing up for the organization’s volunteer-based events. Guests may learn about sustainable shopping practices from Sans Market, or get involved with Trash Turtles, a nonprofit that hosts beach cleanups and focuses on environmental education.
Attendees can also expect to see live animals as they stop by the touch tank, while youth can learn how to make a difference with a career in the environmental field.
Local residents, Francke explained, should be interested in this event, as they are surrounded by water – and everything they do can affect the waterways. While around 275 people have signed up for the event online, he added, the hope is a turnout of 500 people or more.
Free tickets and information about free parking are available online here.
Darren Ginn
June 6, 2024at12:02 pm
The problem with events such as this is that suggestions for what people need to be doing in the immediate urgency needed falls short.
Complete engagement is essential that includes people being educated to the irrefutable facts how our oceans are being depleted and ravaged by the commercial fishing industry.
The general population think the fishing industry is benign and it’s massively destructive.
One fact is the injury and death to marine life and wildlife from lost and discarded nets, gear, hooks, line, etcetera.
It’s not at all surprising that entities running such events don’t talk about the need to stop commercial fishing, educate people on the dangers of eating fish, and other issues because they obviously don’t know the facts and especially don’t want to lose restaurant revenue.