Today is June 8th. It is also World Oceans Day. This special day was first started in 2008 by the United Nations. The purpose of World Oceans Day is to help people remember that our oceans are very important to our planet. We need healthy oceans to have a healthy world. Much of our lives have a connection with the ocean, so we need to think about how to keep our environment clean and how to enjoy oceans more.

The oceans are important to all countries to exchange goods. Thousands and thousands of boats, ships, and ferries travel over the oceans all over the world. Every country in the world is connected to other countries through our oceans. We can see in Shikoku the great ship building companies that are here. The people of Shikoku know how important the ocean is for companies and for daily life.

The oceans are the places of incredible fish and animals. Whales, sharks, dolphins, orca, octopuses, squid, shrimp, and thousands of different kinds of fish fill the oceans. The oceans feed us. We enjoy so much seafood and need the oceans to be good places for the food that we eat.

The oceans are places where we can swim and enjoy and appreciate nature. The beaches we can visit in the summer are wonderful places for friends and family. We need to take care of our beaches so that more people can enjoy them too. We need to be careful with our garbage and plastic so that we do not make a big mess.

The oceans are places that give us imagination and a feeling of peace. Everyone loves the sound of the waves on the water. Everyone loves to look out on the big blue ocean and feel the wind on our faces. The ocean is a place that can give us healing and peace.

Sometimes, when big oil companies are not careful with their work there can be a lot of damage to our oceans. Oil spills on the water can damage a lot of seafood, hurt many seabirds, and make our beaches ugly and black. Of course we need oil for our lives too, but we must keep companies safe so that they can do their work safely and keep our beaches and oceans clean too.

Sometimes, we see too much garbage on the beaches. Some people throw their trash on the sand after having a BBQ. Some garbage comes from the ocean, sometimes from other countries. We should not have garbage on our beautiful beaches and we should work together to keep our beautiful places clean.

This summer I am sure you will have a chance to go to a beach. I hope you can go and jump in the water and have fun with friends and family. It is important to get out and to touch nature. But we also need to think about what kind of nature we will leave to the children of the future. We need to keep our water clean. We need to keep our beaches clean. We need to keep our oceans clean and healthy.

Water is everywhere, and water is life. Happy World Oceans Day. Let’s have many, many more in the future too.