World Oceans Day 2019: Deakin and Blue x Love The Oceans

It’s World Oceans Day on the 8th June and we're proud to be working with marine conservation organisation Love The Oceans to reduce, remove and recycle waste from our oceans.

We're running a joint campaign throughout June: for every Deakin and Blue swimsuit or bikini we sell, Love the Oceans will remove 2kg of rubbish from the oceans.

Who is Love The Oceans?

Love The Oceans is a micro non-profit marine conservation organisation working in Mozambique. The team, led by Francesca, are working to protect the coastline in an area of unique natural beauty which is home to whale sharks, manta rays, beautiful coral reefs and the famous humpback whales.

What activity is Love The Oceans doing?

Love The Oceans undertakes marine research at Guinjata Bay in Mozambique. They conduct health checks on coral and marine life and collect sightings data on the flagship marine species in the area including humpback whales, whale sharks and manta rays. 

Guinjata Bay, whilst beautiful, is situated on the edge of the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch. There are five large Garbage Patches around the world and the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch is the 3rd largest, at over 5 million kilometres squared. The patch is a gigantic gyre of litter suspended in the water column and consists of an array of different waste: discarded fishing gear, plastics, chemical sludge and other debris. 

Love The Oceans formally added ocean clean up activities to their work in 2017. The team had been doing beach cleans for years, removing hundreds of kilograms of rubbish off of remote beaches and, in 2017, they decided to start logging the beach cleans. Now they study why we have so much rubbish, what types are most common and what we can do to reduce it. The team have found that nearly 100% of the collected trash is plastic, with a huge portion of that single-use.

Why are Deakin and Blue partnering with Love The Oceans?

At Deakin and Blue we are committed to having a positive impact on the world around us - the people and the environment. This underpins everything we do - from the fabrics used to make our swimsuits (all our pieces are made from ocean waste), to the partners we work with and the packaging we use to dispatch your swimwear (100% recyclable).

We recognise the importance of the work that organisations such as Love The Oceans are doing, day in and day out, to try and address the impact of human behaviour on the planet, and we are delighted to support them in their endeavours. 

Feeling motivated? What more you can do to help protect the oceans

Cutting down on every day waste is a really easy way to start. Say no to the straw, take your own bag to the super market and choose the loose fruit that isn’t covered in plastic. Cutting out single use plastic, as much as you can, is one of the easiest and most effective ways of immediately reducing your waste footprint and environmentally conscious shopping is essential to changing the tide on plastics.

Here are some little life hacks that can also help and might save you money along the way:

• Swap to a re-usable water bottle and save money on bottled water as you can fill up at coffee shops for free.
• Cut out plastic milk cartons and go back to your milkman! Find your local milkman and put your order in today!
• Treat yourself to a re-usable coffee cup. There are heaps of jazzy cost-effective options online. Coffee shops will happily pop your latte in your own cup.
• Swap your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo toothbrush. They’re cheap and they last longer than plastic brushes! They’re just as good for your teeth too.
• Take part in a #2MinuteBeachClean the next time you are at the beach. Spending just two minutes picking up loose rubbish can help reduce the amount of waste that finds its way to our oceans and which might go on to harm our marine life.

Alternatively, why not buy a swimsuit or bikini from Deakin and Blue in June and your purchase will help us to remove an additional 2kg of rubbish from the ocean. So you can treat yourself, knowing you're doing your bit for the planet, too!