Be An Advocate!

In my household as a child, my mother was the person with power.  If I wanted something, I needed to convince her.  Sometimes I was effective, and sometimes, she failed to see the merit behind buying me one more pair of shoes.  I’m sure you can relate.  Everyone has fought for a cause, whatever it may be, at some point in their life, probably hundreds of times.  This is ADVOCACY! 

Here at Clean Ocean Action, we are all about the advocacy.  Advocacy, according to Merriam-Webster, is the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal.  COA supports behavior, policies, and products that lead to a clean and healthy ocean.  We need your help.  Change does not occur without the will of the citizens.  Businesses, tourism, fishing, boating, diving, etc. all depend on a clean ocean.  And the seals, birds, fish, plankton, whales, and sharks that live out in the ocean would really like it to be clean too.  So let’s advocate for our cause. 

We can accomplish this by talking to each other.  While picking up your kids, grocery shopping, or walking on the treadmill at the gym you can mention how reusable bottles help decrease the amount of plastic in the ocean, that fertilizer runs off into the water and leads to low oxygen, or that there really isn’t enough oil off the Atlantic coast to lower our gas prices so we shouldn’t risk drilling.  This is how behavior starts to change.  You can write a blog or a letter-to-the-editor or even post on your Facebook account to help spread the word.  

People working together can make a difference and can change laws.  So embrace advocacy and use it in your everyday life.  We do and we see just how effective it can be!