Coming together to celebrate our ocean
With due regard for the health and safety of our communities, Oceans Week HFX will be postponing events this year due to the extended lockdown in Mi’kma’ki / Nova Scotia. While this has been a difficult decision, it’s imperative for us to support the provincial health orders and directions, and ask folks to stay safe and stay home. The most important thing all of us can do is to focus on being kind, patient, and helping one another with the challenges we’re facing.
We acknowledge that we are all collectively experiencing the effects of the global pandemic, and recognize the detrimental impacts this most recent lockdown is having on our community members, especially small business owners. Our communities are the foundation of OWHFX in creating and hosting events to help celebrate World Ocean Day, and we do not wish to put anyone in harm’s way. Thankfully, there are many online events and resources to celebrate WOD nationally and globally this year, and we encourage everyone interested to visit @worldoceanday at www.worldoceanday.org for more information and to register today!
We would like to give a special shout out to our communities, partners, and companies for your ongoing support and resilience during this unprecedented time. We can’t wait to see you all again for OWHFX 2022 as a reimagined event that will bring us all together to engage, celebrate, and advocate for ocean health and human wellbeing.
Sincerely, and stay safe,
Oceans Week HFX
We are a community-based, youth-led initiative that supports our growing ocean community to connect with one another and important ocean solutions here in Nova Scotia.
We recognize the important role that the ocean has in our lives, and the lives of future generations. We recognize the important role we have on the ocean and its biodiversity. Our mission is to create and build upon the legacy of ocean awareness and positive direct action by celebrating World Oceans Day every June 8th, here in Nova Scotia.
We work collaboratively with not-for-profit organizations, academia, corporations, rights-holders, government, and the public to honour the legacy and goals of World Oceans Day. For the past five years, OWHFX has focused its core values on inclusivity and accessibility, and invites broad audiences of all ages and demographics to participate in a variety of educational and recreational events.
In 2019, we hosted more than 40 events with the support of over 35 organizations over 10 days of celebration -- more than anywhere else in the WORLD!
As we move into the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, OWHFX is committed to continuing our own legacy of ocean connections, ocean optimism, and climate justice.
For more information
oceanweekhfx@gmail.com
Social
Instagram: @OceansWeekHFX
Facebook: /OceansWeekHFX
2020 Virtual Events
Contact us
OUR GOALS
To honour and celebrate World Oceans Day regionally
To stand behind Indigenous Water Protectors and Knowledge Keepers
To support and encourage youth engagement and action
To advocate for oceans solutions and promote ocean optimism
To connect and support community members and organizations
Oceans Week 2020 Kick off Event
Join us on June 6 from 11:30am - 12:30 to nationally kick-off Oceans Week HFX 2020, Chúk Odenigbo will be delivering a keynote speech moderated by Larissa Crawford that will explore exactly how, living in what is now known as Canada, we are all oceans people.
Participants should leave with an increased awareness of how they can contribute to the protection of oceans from anywhere in Canada in the interest of Earth and future generations.
OUR OCEANS COMMUNITY
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
Our vision
2019 was our biggest year to date with nearly 40 participating organizations and over 30 events, Halifax’s oven ocean community is riding the wave!
OWHFX aims to connect our ocean community to promote greater awareness and advocacy for the benefit of our local and global oceans, ourselves and future generations. Our goal is to foster meaningful community partnerships and support local events that are inclusive, accessible, educational, open to the public, and fun.
We focus on fostering ocean solutions and optimism through interdisciplinary science and outreach. We achieve this by streamlining all events onto a single platform, to maintain up-to-date and relevant circulation of Oceans Week efforts through social media channels, photography and videography.
2020: Read our COVID 19 Statement
2020: Read our Oceans Week HFX | Black Lives Matter Statement
Our founders
Alexandra and Mo connected in 2014 and it wasn't long after where they found themselves volunteering for the same ocean conservation groups. In 2016, they identified an opportunity to expand their volunteer hours and put their energy into growing something larger and with more impact on the broader community.
As youth volunteers last year, they became two of Taking It Global's #RisingYouth alumni. They have taken their community initiative and over the last three years, have created opportunities for the public and youth to become engaged through an ocean education and conservation lens. Alexandra and Mo hope to continue learning about the ocean and it's relationship to people, by building genuine connections with their local community.
ALEXANDRA VANCE,
CO-FOUNDER
An ocean explorer and marine conservationist, Alexandra (she/her) currently works as a Marine Scientist and Expedition Coordinator. With an academic background in marine management, biology, and environmental sciences, she continues to work and volunteer in the not-for-profit sector with a special focus on integrated coastal and ocean management (ICOM) and local community engagement. She is a passionate science communicator, and advocates for climate justice, ocean optimism, and connecting with nature. Alexandra is a born-and-raised maritimer, and has lived in Nova Scotia for the past 13 years.
MO PHÙNG,
CO-FOUNDER
Mo Phùng (She/Her) works as the Community Specialist for Ocean Bridge at Ocean Wise. She is also a freelance QPOC photographer based in K’jipuktuk (Halifax). Her academic background is in Marine Biology and Ocean Technology. Mo’s work combines ocean sciences and visual media to focus on communication strategies within the environmental sectors and how to engage youth from across Canada. Topics close to her heart: Ocean Education and Literacy, Environmental Racism Issues, Climate Justice & Equity and 2SLGBTQIA+ Rights and Awareness.
oceans week history
Halifax is the birthplace of World’s Ocean Day
First introduced at the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992, a small team on behalf of the Government of Canada conceptualized June 8 as World Oceans Day (WOD) - a day on which the whole world would pause and participate, celebrate, and take actions in favour of our global oceans. Elisabeth Mann Borgese (founder of the International Oceans Institute) brought the idea back home to Halifax and began collaborating with local organizations, museums, academia, and government to host the first ever World Oceans Day event in 1992, long before WOD was internationally recognized in 2008.
More than 25 years later, Halifax continues the tradition of hosting the iconic WOD ocean-exhibition at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. This initial event has since inspired many organizations throughout Halifax and the world to host their own celebrations. Today, over 100 countries participate in over 1,000 WOD events every year with 2018 having been the largest, most participated WOD to date. With 500 new organizations participating in the past year alone the message of hope and the common goal of improving the health of our oceans through collective awareness and optimism seems to be spreading ubiquitously throughout the world and its oceans.
from the founding members
This is the story of World Ocean Day’s (WOD) modest beginnings almost three decades ago. The first “Oceans Day” was designed by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development and launched through the Ocean Institute of Canada, on June 8, 1992, at the NGO Global Forum of the Earth Summit, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro. It was the genesis of a global social movement in public education and ocean literacy.
The event called for a greater awareness of our relationship with the world ocean; in particular, the need to better understand the cumulative human impacts on climate change and global warming. The theme of the very first Oceans Day in Rio was “The Health of the Blue Planet and the Health of Coastal Populations.”
Short Film created for the Oceans Week HFX 2019
