Giving back is always important, and I’m always curious to know what charities people support, as that says more about someone than anything else. My favourite charity by far is Oceana. Being someone who has always loved the ocean and all things sea-life (I learned to swim at the age of three at the beach, and no one could manage to get me out of the water whenever we’d have beach days). Basically, as a child, I really wanted to grow up to be a mermaid, cause sea life seemed way more my thing than life on land. I pretty much had the opposite feelings that Ariel did in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. The whole time she kept trying to get rid of her fins, and I kept thinking, DON’T DO IT! FEET ARE SO OVERRATED!
But I digress.
So why should you be interested in joining Oceana? For one, they helped preserve Punta de Choros in August 2010, Oceana helped convinced Chilean President Sebastian Pinera to request the relocation fo a coal-fired power plant scheduled to be constructed in a vulnerable region of Chile’s northern coast.
Not only that, but they also have helped save sharks lives. In January 2009, the Spanish government, in cooperation with Oceana, helped advance new shark legislation that would ban and catch the threatened hammerhead and thresher sharks. Spain is one of the largest shark catching and exporting countries in the world, and by 2019, the entire European Union enacted a ban on shark finning.
Other than doing those amazing things they do for marine life, Oceana also provides ways for you to help as well, whether you contribute to donate for marine life (such as helping starving orcas) to help with beach cleaning.
Keeping oceans clean and habitable for marine life is very important and that’s why Oceana is a charity that is close to my heart.