How You Can Help

You can make a difference one day at a time

There are a variety of ways people, organizations, and businesses can help Ocean Wishes. Our programs are funded through donations of money, time, products, and services, as well as through fundraising events. You can help by making a monetary donation, becoming a volunteer, or contributing marine art or photography for auction, sale, or fundraising. (Make an Ocean Wishes today!) (opens in a new tab)

Organizations and businesses can help by donating or sponsoring a child’s diving certification education or ocean-related experience. Another way to help is by sharing information. Send us a story or a cause you feel needs our attention. Report abuse of marine environments. Sharing information is the key to education. And if you know about a child or family deserving of an Ocean Wish, tell us about them.

How You Can Help Our Oceans

• Don’t buy sea shells or shell products in retail stores.
• Don’t buy exotic animals in pet stores shipped in from other countries.
• Scuba diving doesn’t collect souvenirs like corals or shells, instead, takes underwater photos.
• Think about how your interaction with marine animals can affect their life. Avoid touching, handling, feeding, or riding aquatic life.
• When boating, bring your trash back to shore and handle waste correctly.
• Inform and inspire your friends and co-workers to reduce marine debris by not using plastic.
  Avoid putting any chemicals down the drain.
• Volunteer to organize a group and devote some of your time to the local reef, pond, and neighborhood clean-up.

Encourage Leaders to Protect Marine Environments

• Write your government and ask them to support policies that protect our ocean.
• Tell your government representatives to increase funding for the conservation of marine environments for Sea Turtles.
• Urge the government to learn from the Exxon Valdez disaster and make coastal and marine environments off-limits to energy development.
• Urge members of Congress to sponsor the Tropical Forest and Coral Conservation Act.
• Report environmental disturbances of destruction to your local authority.

Take Care of Our Environment

• Put trash in a secure, lidded receptacle – most marine debris starts out on land.
• Use paper instead of plastic.
• Conserve water.
• Take care of your trash. Properly recycle everything you can in your area. Composting all organic waste – and recycling paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles – will help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfills.
• Less is more: Don’t buy the stuff you don’t need.
• Bring your own containers for lunches and picnics instead of using disposables.
• Eat wisely. Choose foods that are local, organic, and low on the food chain whenever possible.
• Make the most of seasonal foods.
• Buy locally
• Take your own reusable bags whenever you go shopping.
• Visit local businesses and encourage them to reuse, recycle, and generate less packaging.
• Don’t smoke! Put cigarette butts in ashtrays, not on streets, sidewalks, or beaches.
• Go carbon neutral.
• Reduce your home heating and electricity use. A more energy-efficient home will lower your utility bills and reduce the emissions that cause climate change. Find out how you can increase energy efficiency in your home.
• Go solar!
• Choose energy-efficient appliances. New refrigerators, for example, use 40 percent less energy than models made just 10 years ago and would save enough energy to light your home for more than three months.
• Next car you buy make sure it’s fuel efficient, low polluting, or an EV. A typical SUV uses almost twice the fuel – and releases nearly twice the emissions – of a modern station wagon, although both seat the same number of passengers.
• Walk, bike, carpool, or take transit to get to one of your regular destinations each week.
  Get involved with local environmental groups and committees to educate others.