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.