On Friday evening at MUSE School, I was presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award for my ninth book Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.
Regardless of where you live on our planet, the oceans provide us with three out of every four breaths of air. Like the bees and trees, the oceans are terribly ill and missing 40 percent of the oxygen-providing phytoplankton.
My students at MUSE are doing some tremendous conservation in-action. Chelsea Manos’ first grade class is working with children all over America to free Lolita, an endangered Orca, from the Miami Seaquarium. Lolita has been imprisoned for 40 years and children from coast to coast want her returned to the wild. The children are also demanding that dolphinariums be shut down because they are cruel.
At MUSE, students of all ages understand that dolphins, whales and sharks are ‘doctors of the sea.’ Their role is to keep populations of prey fit by culling the old, weak and sick, thus preventing diseases from becoming epidemics. The oceans are missing the vast majority of their doctors due to despicable ocean-killing poachers.
Peter Nippard’s fourth grade class has removed 31 pounds of plastic, Styrofoam and other ocean trash from Corral State Beach. They are sharing their conservation work with an ocean-based school in Mozambique. The children are outraged that 3.5 million pieces of plastic are entering our oceans daily.
Lauren Belcher’s freshman class has removed 65 pounds of plastic, Styrofoam, cigarette buts and other ocean trash from the shores of Corral State Beach. MUSE freshman have formed a movement to enlist other freshman from schools in our region to adopt a beach, remove ocean trash and protect marine life.Â
It is thrilling to report that our youth understand that the strength of an ecosystem depends upon its biodiversity and that all biodiversity is interconnected.
It’s time for each of us to lend a helping hand and protect our planet, now!
Earth Dr. Reese Halter’s latest book is Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.Â
