Is There Such a Thing As an Oceanic Electorate? - Mission Blue

December 4, 2012

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By Samantha Harris

The American electorate has spoken — President Obama earned four more years as commander in chief. Regardless of the candidate you preferred, it was making the choice itself that made you part of the process.

When you cast your ballot this November, you exercised your right to vote. That right gave you an opportunity to pick a candidate who shares the same ideals as you. What if you didn’t have this right? What if there was no one to listen to what you cared about, and you had no voice in what happened in your backyard? Would that upset you? It happens every day, in our oceans.

Every nation has jurisdiction over their coastlines up to 200 miles out. Once that mark is crossed, rules are made by national governments supposedly cooperating through bodies regulating specific activities such as fishing, shipping, or seabed mining.

They’re supposed to make decisions regarding what happens in our international waters on behalf of us all. All governing bodies have priorities. Ocean health isn’t high on anyone’s list, which essentially makes international waters poorly protected and riddled with conflicting rules. Decisions affecting the livelihood of marine life and the people who depend on that life must involve us.

Our five oceans are teaming with marine life — life with no voice. These species simply cannot cast a vote and stand up for their community the way you did on November 6th.

Corals can’t scream when you break them, a shark can’t speak up and beg not to be finned and a dolphin can’t fight back in Tajii to avoid being slaughtered. They all need you to be their voice.

You’re probably thinking: The ocean is vast, an unlimited resource. What happens there doesn’t affect my life. This could not be further from the truth. The ocean provides more than you realize.

What does the ocean provide us?

16 percent of the global population’s primary source of protein is fish

90M tons of fish extracted from the ocean per year

Creates more than 50 percent of oxygen we breathe

Cycles 93 percent of the carbon we pump out

Fishing industry employs 200M people globally

Regulates the climate and weather

How do we give a voice to 45 percent of our planet? By creating a virtual country, offering free citizenship to the global community and educating the largest group of people through social engagement. We call it The TerraMar Project. Founded on the basis of the Public Trust Doctrine, it is the principle that certain resources are preserved for public use, and that the government is required to maintain them for the public’s reasonable use. Simply put, our common ocean belongs to us and should be protected for generations to come.

The TerraMar Project is the wave of the future, pun intended. We are supported by the likes of Sir Richard Branson, The High Seas Alliance, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, Antarctic Ocean Alliance, Mission Blue & Marviva, to name a few, to bring a spotlight to the vast oceans beyond our national boundaries, the international waters that belong to us all.

Our focus on building the world’s largest global ocean community is what sets us apart from thousands of other ocean initiatives. We highlight the work of educators, scientists, explorers and NGOs doing their part to help the future of the oceans. It is our social engagement model and interactivity, along with our project, that sets us apart from the average nonprofit.

We want every citizen on the planet to have, at least, dual citizenship — one to their homeland and another to TerraMar. We look forward to you joining our virtual ocean nation as fellow citizens. Power is achieved in numbers. Our goal is to reach 1 MILLION citizens. With one million people supporting us, we hope politicians around the world will start to pay attention to the Earth’s oceans and inspire legislative change. Your voice counts, so use it for the fish and marine mammals that don’t have one.

 

This post was originally published by our friends at The TerraMar Project on the Huffington Post Green Blog.

Top image: File: Timor Coral Reef.jpg – wikimedia commons

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