If you are reading this blog you probably have an affinity for the ocean and the allure of life on the water. The draw the ocean has on many of us isn’t surprising given the fact that it makes life as we know it possible. In addition to being a source of commerce — more than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihood—the ocean provides half the oxygen we breathe, is the source of 20% of the animal protein that we eat, and absorbs as much as half of the carbon emissions produced in the last century. On top of all of that, the ocean is home to 80% of all life on Earth. One of the ways that all of us can play a role in protecting the ocean is by protecting something we depend on every day: water.

Water, more specifically the watersheds and waterways that support our communities and homes, have a major impact on ocean health because ultimately, they feed into the ocean, carrying many of the by-products of life on land from plastic trash to wastewater runoff that are decimating our oceans. In fact, eighty percent of pollution in the marine environment comes from the land.

Through their environmental nonprofit organization EarthEcho International, Ashlan and Philippe Cousteau work with young leaders, educators, mentors, and partners around the globe who are committed to acting now for a sustainable future. In honor of World Water Monitoring Day on September 18, they invite us all to join them and the team at EarthEcho International to be part of the solution to healthy waterways and a healthy ocean.

Each year, World Water Monitoring Day is marked with community events across the globe that focus on taking action to investigate the health of our local bodies of water. In addition to supporting people joining in to test water quality at their local river, lake, estuary, or ocean, EarthEcho also offers many virtual resources and activities. This year, as part of their #LetsSolveWater campaign they are working with incredible partners like Xylem Watermark and the Water Environment Federation to provide virtual events to empower citizens and students around the world to take action to solve the global water crisis.

Being good stewards of local water resources and our ocean is obviously bigger than one day. That’s why World Water Monitoring Day is part of the larger EarthEcho Water Challenge, a program that helps build public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world. To date, this program has activated over 1.6 million citizen scientists to monitor and protect local waterways in 146 countries.