My Experience being an Agent of Change for the Oceans

In my first Slate post, I went into the basics of what ghost nets are, how they end up in the ocean, and the negative effects they pose to the ecosystems they end up in. They’re a really huge problem since they’re made out of plastic, which as we know takes hundreds of years to decompose. They also start a vicious cycle of trapping animals, dragging them to the bottom of the ocean, breaking free when the animal dies, and catching something again. They’re so dangerous because they continue to do this even when there aren’t humans around to man them anymore. The Olive Ridley Project is an organization whose mission is” to protect sea turtles and their habitats through rescue and rehabilitation of injured sea turtles, education and outreach, and scientific research.” They’re located in the Maldives (which is below India) and they are doing some pretty awesome stuff. On their website, you can report a ghost net, contact them about a sea turtle emergency, buy a dog leash made out of a ghost net, and volunteer with them. This is a great example of people bringing awareness to this issue and doing something to change/stop it.

Seahart, who was a turtle patient for the Olive Ridley Project

For my Agent of Change, I decided to make a presentation for my advisory. For our last couple of advisory meetings, people have been presenting about their passions/hobbies. I thought this would be a great way to not only educate some people about this topic, but it’s also tied into one of my passions. I spent a lot of time working on the presentation, making sure it wasn’t too loaded with information and easy to follow. I wanted to keep it short so it wouldn’t bore people, but also be able to get enough information across. The most important thing I wanted to tell my advisory was how they can help this issue on an individual level. I always feel so bombarded when a big topic like this is shown to me and I often feel like there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m just a consumer that isn’t helping the issue. So I wanted to shine light on the fact that there IS something you can do to help this issue and it’s so simple. All you have to do is check where you’re getting your fish from and how it’s caught. My presentation for my advisory went really well! I got asked a few questions and everyone was super supportive. I felt like people were actually paying attention and absorbing what I was saying. Hopefully some of the numbers and stats that I had on my presentation put this issue into perspective and just how big of a problem it is.

I felt pretty good about doing this project. I felt like I was doing really good work and striving towards a positive change while doing it which was even better. When I learned about myself was how lucky I am to have been able to experience so much while scuba diving. I’m so lucky to have been able to see the animals that I saw and I should never take that for granted. I’m so grateful for all of the experiences I’ve had while diving and I wonder how my mindset will be different the next time I’m able to.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g9LgrOI_julXQL51bIWRHpOTHGIC2-t3k0lgPWA8U70/edit)