Snorkel with seahorses for marine conservation, get stuck into AR games, interactive stalls and checkout the community BBQ! This FREE event is brought to you by Viewfinders, Mospress, Dive Masters and Dive 2000 to protect the habitat of our local seahorse buddies. For more information head to the official event page here.
Sunday 18 November, 11am – 2pm
Clifton Gardens Warf, Mosman
At the beginning of the term, Viewfinders decided to focus on marine sustainability. We all took to our laptops and researched the different effects of plastic pollution. One team member then came across the effects that it has on the seahorses. As we are all passionate about all living things, we thought that is was just unfair that these gorgeous animals are suffering because of our actions. To us this was a major factor in deciding that this was what we were going to advocate for. Because of this, we have designed an event that shows the public how important this issue really is and to inspire you that there are other ways! We hope that our collective action will help another species avoid the endangered list!
We are all strongly passionate about the ocean and the marine life living in it. Negative human impact is harming seahorses and destroying their habitats, due to: over-fishing, plastic and fishing debris pollution and destruction of habitat because of the use of boat moorings. But with a little bit of effort, we can all make a difference. There are plenty alternatives for all of these issues that have caused the seahorses to become an endangered species. An example of this is to reduce plastic consumption and strive to make sustainable choices as often as possible. If you can’t avoid completely, a conscious effort to reuse, reduce and recycle all your plastic will have a positive impact on the marine life and their habitats. This means taking a reusable shopping bag when shopping rather than a single use plastic bag or even just saying “no straw please” when ordering your favorite beverage. Small actions can make a huge difference. Boat mooring vessel of the anchor swirls around with the tides and wrecking the reefs, clearing patches of seagrass and therefore eliminating habits unintentionally with it’s strong force. One interesting fact we learned this term is that seagrass does not quickly reproduce and is not resilient to environmental impacts. Remember to keep in mind that when you dock your boat please be aware of your surroundings and avoid dark patches of seagrass.
At our event, Turning the Tides, one of our stalls will be demonstrating alternatives for common plastic items through a plastic free pop up party display. For example: bowls made out of banana leaves, paper lanterns, metal straws, keep cups, paper streamers and fairy lights in mason jars. It’s a better way to be, because we are decreasing the amount of plastic we use daily.
With ten minutes of creativity we identified and found alternatives which allowed us to care for the environment in a fun way! Through and research and discussions we not only learned about seahorses but also become passionate about this issue that we created an event to share the beauty that can be found in Mosman! We believe that every action makes a difference, its only a matter of one single step at a time. One step forward in the right direction, a step towards a better and more sustainable future!!
