Salish sea Heroes: Sea Smart's Youth Action Teams
An amazing group of young people in the lower mainland of British Columbia are changing their beaches and their lives to help threatened marine animals. These kids from Point Grey Secondary, False Creek Elementary, Ecole Inman Elementary, and General Brock Elementary have one thing in common: they each participated in a Sea Smart Youth Action Team.
Sea Smart is a super fun ocean education charity in Vancouver, BC that inspires people to love and protect the ocean. These action teams used their noggins, hands, and hearts to find attainable solutions for sea life in danger.
After learning about the habitat needs of some of Salish Sea’s superstars-southern resident killer whales, basking sharks, Steller sea lions and leatherback sea turtles (yes they swim in the Salish Sea, diving up to 1,000 meters deep, hunting for jellies!)-these kids made some science-based plans and went to work!
Just what did they do for our ocean neighbors this year? First they headed to the seaside and prevented 388 kg (855 lbs) of plastic garbage and 35 kg (77 lbs) of recyclable materials from entering the ocean from 976,500 square meters of beach in 15 shoreline cleanups. But they weren’t done.
Next they took the pollution problem to the source, their families and communities! Here is just some of what they did:
Point Grey Secondary students reached 1200 people through their social media campaign
Students at False Creek Elementary showed their posters on underwater noise to 265 people
Ecole Inman Elementary ran a waste-free lunch week that engaged the whole school
General Brock Elementary and Mount Pleasant Elementary will continue litterless lunches and book swaps throughout their school .
This was not just a one-time project. After learning about species at risk, here is some of what students decided to do in their own lives:
“Buy food in bulk to reduce packaging waste”
“Only eat sustainable seafood” ● “Continue to use my reusable water bottle and avoid single-use plastics as much as I can”
“Use less plastic and encourage others to do the same”
“Buy second-hand clothing instead of new clothing”
If you live in the lower mainland of BC, you can become a Salish Sea Hero with Sea Smart too! To help species at risk, just ask your teacher to sign up for Youth Action Teams here . To help protect our waterways they can explore the new Clean Water Champions program for schools:
Sea Smart kids get outdoors, become environmental champions and make a positive difference in the world. These kids and the Sea Smart crew are true Salish Sea Heroes. From Team SeaDoc to Team Sea Smart and their participating schools, thank you for all you do to help heal the sea!