Manly is located on Sydney’s northern beaches and is known for its beautiful beaches. The popular beach suburb is surrounded by water and therefore, Manly Sailing appreciate the ocean so much, because what would our sailing be like if there was no water? Actually, our planet is covered by 71% water and more specifically, our meaningful oceans hold about 96.5% of all this water. Whether we use our oceans to swim, snorkel, dive, surf, paddleboard, drive boats or sail, we expect the water to be clean. But why is it actually important to keep the water clean and who is responsible?

Why

Protecting our oceans is important because this water actually supply half of the world’s oxygen. Also, the ocean is a home for millions of lives which provides food for billions of humans on this planet. But still, we humans are contributing to plastic pollution by recycling less than 90% of all plastic such as soda bottles, food packaging, bags and coffee cups. The result of this behaviour is that a huge amount of these plastics is ending up in our oceans. As mentioned above, the underwater life provide food for many people and therefore, we should also be concerned with the fact that we humans are currently “overfishing”. Basically, there are too many boats chasing too few fish out there and that needs to change.

Who

We are happy to inform you that there are many organisations out there that are constantly working on development and ideas for improvements to solve these issues. Here in Manly, we have Manly Environment Centre that is known as the caretakers of Manly. As one of their projects for the Oceans care day in 2017, they had an objective to make the sea plastic free. In fact, they have now been running this event for 24 years and they are constantly seeking new information in order to improve the ocean’s health. In 2017, they organised kayak tours to collect plastic bottles, cups and bags in the water and on the beaches in Manly. Another project has been to ban plastic bags in Manly as they have been a long-term threat to Manly’s fragile ecosystem.

However, it is important that each one of us understands the importance of this and also acknowledge how we can contribute to a healthier ocean!