6 Steps for Solving Single-Use Plastic While Building Resilient Children
by Laura Parker Roerden You are probably asking: How are single-use plastic and children’s resiliency related? Is there some new study that shows plastic effects children’s brains and their resiliency? No, there is not. But there are plenty of studies that show that children’s resiliency, or what we might have called “grit” in another generation, is tied to both […] Read More
Youth #Scholarship to Attend Marine Science Through #Service #SummerProgram Announced
Ocean Matters is proud to announce scholarship available for high school-aged students (ages 15 and older) to attend our Marine Science through Service project in Oahu, Hawaii this summer, July 21-31, 2017. The program will be hosted at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) of the University of Hawaii on Coconut Island off of Oahu. […] Read More
A Very Good Reason To be Hopeful About the World’s Oceans
by Laura Parker Roerden I am very hopeful for our blue planet. Truly. How could that be, you ask, with all of the bad news coming out every day about the state of our world’s oceans? I am hopeful because of young people. Time and again over the past twenty years of my work I have seen […] Read More
With Gratitude to Our Donors on #NationalPhilanthropyDay: Why YOU Matter!
An Interview with Ocean Matters Scholarship Recipient Anya George Anya George (on left) was 19 when she attended our Hawaii Seeds of Sustainability program supported by our generous donors. Ocean Matters Executive Director Laura Parker Roerden recently followed up with Anya to find out how the experience has impacted her life a year later. Everything affects everything […] Read More
Another Reason the Marine National Monuments Matter: Young People!
This morning when I shared the news of today’s historic designation of The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument with my 10-year old son Ben, he pumped his fist in the air and said: “Wow. I think I’ll always remember this moment.” Scientists and conservationists alike are heralding President Obama’s move to protect this unique […] Read More
A Marine Conservation Compass
by Laura Parker Roerden Last summer’s cinema blockbuster Finding Dory has rightly set off alarms in the marine conservation community against an anticipated spike in blue tang sales for private aquaria, which would decimate wild coral reef populations. But there is a deeper conservation message, simmering just below the film’s surface (if you will pardon […] Read More
In Honor of World Oceans Day: Addressing the Invasive Lionfish in the Caribbean
by Andie Herrig (age 18) , Cheyenne Fauvel-Decrombecque (age 18), Reagan Sullivan (age 18) and Devon Sullivan (age 18) May 25, 2016, Utila, Honduras Today Ocean Matters set out to dive on a mission to hunt the invasive lionfish. Yesterday we were taught about how dangerous this predator is in the Caribbean. They disrupt food […] Read More
Make Every Day #EarthDay
“No water, no life. No blue, no green” – Sylvia Earle by Cassandra Bergeron Many of us here at Ocean Matters grew up in landlocked communities and did not have any sense of the impact our actions so far inland ultimately had on the ocean until we eventually fell in love with the ocean on our own terms. But […] Read More