On our watch: the race against time for the ocean

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Our coast is a crucible that forges many of our most indelible memories. 

Beach and ocean photos are disproportionately represented in many a cherished, yellowing family album and the contemporary digital equivalents. So deeply intrinsic to our lives and identity is the coast and the sea that it’s impossible, bordering on absurd, to imagine life in Australia without it.

But despite the ocean’s importance to many of us, it feels like we’re failing to read its cues.

What does it mean to us, to our sense of identity and purpose, when essential parts of our coast and marine environment are changing, deteriorating, before our very eyes?

It falls to us, those who identify with these rare and remarkable places and who feel some responsibility, and who have more agency than we might imagine: to act. Whether our preferred habitat is the boardroom, the party room, the lunchroom, the banter in the stands, the cafe or at the boat ramp, let’s agree to reject the prospect of a deteriorating ocean. 

Let us not allow ourselves to become fatigued by what we see but galvanised and spurred to be ambitious in showing the world and each other that we are up for this challenge.

That we know a measure of our time in this place will be how much we authentically wielded the influence we have in our own lives, privately and publicly, to give our coral reefs, our seagrass meadows, our coast and deep sea, and all that lives in the ocean, and all who depend upon it, every chance of surviving and prospering in this era. The alternative in unthinkable.

Speaker