Six years of marine protection through knowledge. On 28.12.2019, just over two dozen marine conservationists founded ElasmOcean.
We began our message with the image of the rising Earth, photographed almost exactly 51 years earlier by astronaut William Anders aboard Apollo 8. Because we still know more about the far side of the moon than about the two-thirds of the only Earth we have that are covered with water.
Since then we have (among other things)
helped the EU Citizens' Initiative StopFinningEU come to active life and consistently co-shaped it,
initiated our Northern gannet project on Heligoland,
conducted over a dozen marine days (with and without the "Maus") with the Sharky swim schools, providing exciting hours at and in the water for over 600 children,
financially supported several DNA studies,
enabled several film projects, taught approximately 15,000 children face-to-face in daycare centres and schools as part of the school programme through films, interviews, and financial support,
funded surveys on sharks and their economic value off the Bahamas and the Azores,
delivered over 60 school boxes, which by our estimates reach at least 18,000 children,
equipped two foreign facilities in Mozambique and Indonesia with VR glasses for schoolchildren, thereby showing the underwater world to over 10,000 children,
personally conducted over 500 guided tours and a highly attended lecture evening with Hannes Jaenicke at the "Planet Ocean" exhibition in the Gasometer Oberhausen,
published two children's books, and
spread our message day in, day out and everywhere through our wonderful volunteer members, friends, supporters, and specialists!
As an exception, we are celebrating ourselves today, every year, on ElasmOcean Day. We will do this every year now. Because it is our birthday, and because we are far from finished with our mission. There is still much to do - the forces worldwide working against marine and species conservation are becoming stronger, rising up with final, intense strength against scientific truth. "It is difficult to save a world on a voluntary basis that others want to destroy as a full-time job," as Dr. Eckart Hirschhausen accurately put it. That motivates us.
We will continue as before, even more: we are constantly training to become stronger and more resilient, and we continue our attempts to save the world. Someone has to try.
Who is joining us? Who is on board?
Marine protection through knowledge.
(Anyone wishing to read about all our successes and activities: Here are our activity reports as #05 - internal link)
