Celebrating World Oceans Day - with Belugas

I have to admit, this is the first year I’ve celebrated World Oceans Day, although it’s been celebrated around the world since 2002. But I couldn’t have found a better way to celebrate than by doing yoga with yogi, surfer, blissologist, and ocean lover Eoin Finn at the Vancouver Aquarium’s Yoga With  Belugas event.

With proceeds benefitting the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program and SeaChoice, 75 yoga enthusiasts laid down their yoga mats in the awe-inspiring presence of three very special onlookers: the Aquarium’s beluga whales Kavna, Aurora, and Qila. We danced to Hey Ocean’s “Big Blue Wave,” and did downward dogs and crab walks in the normally hushed beluga gallery. 

The world’s oceans are under ever increasing pressure and their problems are growing, including

• overfishing
• irresponsible fish farming
• acidification
• garbage
• plastic gyres
• dead zones
• mercury pollution
• offshore drilling

But today was a day to celebrate the amazing diversity of life and incredible beauty of the world’s oceans. Here on the West Coast, we’re blessed with ocean views every day, views that in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we may sometimes take for granted.

Joyful dancing and centring yoga were perfect ways to honour the ocean. So how can we carry the awareness and enthusiasm we gained today into our daily lives? Next week we’ll look at how to choose sustainable seafood.