Press Release – OCEANA – May 4, 2011 – Oceana in Belize officially kicked off its “I Love My Reef” Campaign on Easter Sunday, April 24 of this year at a San Pedro Beach Party fund raiser, and continued to promote the theme with an incredible snorkeling outing for eighteen Belize City children from the YMCA youth program.
The “I Love My Reef” campaign is intended to promote the beauty of our spectacular Belize Barrier Reef to citizens countrywide, and this group of children and their chaperones were wowed and amazed by the underwater beauty exposed to them by this expedition.
A short boat ride took the future aquanauts first to Sergeant’s Caye, where they were given professional snorkeling instruction by the tour guides, and they hit the water like pros! The guides led the way through the colourful underwater forest, showing the goggled viewers spectacular fish and coral. Then it was off to Goff’s Caye – entrance fees all covered thanks to the Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMAI) - for a great lunch, and afterwards, more swimming. It was overall a great trip, leaving the now experienced snorkelers blown away with what they saw and experienced. They are all now firsthand proponents of what our Belizean Barrier Reef has to offer, and why it should remain protected.
Oceana is also promoting two “I Love My Reef” contests, which are now open to the public. The first is a poetry contest for children aged 8 to 16, and the other is a song contest on the same theme for individuals 17 years and older. All Belizeans are encouraged to enter these contests, and there will be exciting prizes awarded to the winners. Send us your entries today!
Oceana, founded in 2001, is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Our offices in North America, Central America, South America and Europe work together on a limited number of strategic, directed campaigns to achieve measurable outcomes that will help return our oceans to former levels of abundance. We believe in the importance of science in identifying problems and solutions. Our scientists work closely with our teams of economists, lawyers and advocates to achieve tangible results for the oceans.
No comments:
Post a Comment