Interfaith Oceans Actions-- Fighting 7 Deadly Vices with 7 Steps of Virtue --

The connections between damage to the oceans and the sufferings of the poor are direct and dramatic, especially in small island and coastal communities.  Coastal peoples are also harmed by the loss of homes from rising waters, loss of fish and a livelihood, loss of beauty and hope from the pollution they did not create. It's our job to let people know! Here's what Reverend Lusama of the Christian Church of the islands of Tuvalu has said about the effects of climate change. There are also incidents of human slavery in the seafood industry, so we need to put pressure on seafood suppliers to stop buying from such providers. Greenpeace has an app that can help. We need to work and pray as individuals and as a community for those harmed, for caring for our world and ocean as part of our spiritual duties, and for how to address the challenges of climate change.

Addressing 7 Deadly Vices of the Seas

A Juvenile Sea Turtle Ingests Balloon Debris (Photo Credit: Blair Witherington FWC)

1) Fossil Fuel Pollution (causing ocean acidification, rising oceans swamping coasts, dying coral reefs, shifting currents and more frequent, intense storms, chaotic climatic changes, and more). Learn about ocean acidification and other fossil fuel damages to the oceans and coastal communities.

• Reduce your carbon footprint and that of your faith or spiritual community. In addition to walking, bicycling, carpooling, and turning off lights,  Interfaith Power and Light has many more suggestions and an action kit to become a "Cool Congregation." Pray for the courage and commitment to act. You can also take the St. Francis Pledge to act to slow climate change in the name of caring for God's creation and the poor.
• Use alternative energies, as much as is possible. Start solar gardens and rooftops!

• Divest from fossil fuel based investments and invest in alternative energies.

• Plant trees yourself, with your family and friends and faith community.

2) Overfishing and Wasteful, Cruel Fishing, and human slavery in factory fishing fleets -- help stop the slavery and many beloved commercial species from going extinct from nonsustainable fishing practices.

• Avoid purchasing seafood from companies buying from factory fishing fleets with human slavery -- get the Greenpeace app. 
• Avoid eating non-sustainable ocean species -- ones not sustainably raised or caught (ask your fish market or restaurant). Go to Seafood Watch on your computer or download their app, for the list.
• Support sustainable catch limits and bans on bottom trawling and dredging in the name of caring for God's creation. The Magnuson-Ferguson fishing bill is an important one for the U.S. to keep strong and active. Learn more about the campaigns of The Ocean Conservancy on fisheries and do your part and encourage your community to too.
• Push to stop all commercial whale fishing.
• Visit and support Marine Sanctuaries, Wilderness, and Protected Areas- which are essential for preserving marine species now declining. For more on these essential areas in the U.S.,  see the NOAA site. For more on the global marine wilderness movement, go to WILD's Marine Wilderness 10+ 10 Project.

3) Plastics & Other Garbage in the Seas, killing wildlife and toxifying food chains and seafood.

• Avoid disposable one-time use plastics, such as plates, straws, netting, balloons for releasing, and more.
• Reuse, recycle, and restore items, and when buying, avoid over-packaging or over-processing.
• Participate in an coastal clean up or river clean up day (since all rivers lead to the sea), especially as a faith community. Join the Trash-Free Seas Campaign and the local and national Clean Up Days. Get your faith community involved in these great events!
• Use reusable cloth bags when you can and support a plastic bag ban (for one-time non-food uses) in your community and state. Here's a short video on the movement of the plastic bag to the sea "The Majestic Plastic Bag" by Heal the Bay.

4) Sewage, Chemical, and Nuclear Run-off and Wastes

• Avoid chemicals on lawns, fields, cleaning supplies, paints, and other toxic chemicals whenever you can for they wash into the rivers and then into our bays and oceans. Urge your faith community and its members to do the same. Don't ever put oil or kitty litter down drains or toilets!
• Eat organic and local foods as much as you can and serve these foods at your faith community whenever you can. Shop at the farmers market and make friends with your local farmers!
• Push for higher standards in waste water treatment and non-fossil fuel and non-nuculear energy solutions.

5) Invasive Species and Harm of Species (avoiding cruelty) and Loss of Biodiversity ;

• Support bans on shark finning and fishing, bottom trawling and dredging (predators keep other fish in balance, maintaining diversity).
• Support bans on wild caught species for aquariums, zoos, and sea entertainment venues, especially of large mammals. Do not buy wild caught tropical fish for aquariums or empty aquariums into rivers and oceans so as not to bring in invasive species.
• Support conservation organizations for threatened species -- such as sea turtles, whales, sharks, dolphins, manatees, sea otters, and others -- and habitats -- such as coral reefs, mangrove forests, tidepools, and kelp forests, and more. Pick your favorites as individuals and as communities of faith and do something for them! And make others aware of their plights.
• Get yourself, your family and friends, and community of faith active in habitat restoration projects -- in the name of healing God's creations and communities. There are opportunities through local organizations, Nature Conservancy, Ocean Conservancy, NOAA, US Fish and Wildlife, state and local department of natural resources, Riverkeepers and other river organizations, and so many more.

6) Sensory Pollution (sea traffic, noise, explosions, sonar, radar, drones, light pollution -- all causing beachings, extreme distress, stress, and confusion among sea life, especially whales and dolphins). For example, read this story on whales and sound.

• Listen to "Lethal Sounds" on YouTube about noise under sea.
• Urge Navy to stop high intensity sounds and drones near migration, feeding, and calving areas of whales, dolphins, sharks and other marine species.
• Urge U.S. government and other nations to seek national and international restrictions on guidelines and restrictions on sensory pollution, including ship traffic, sonar, and drones.



7)  Harmful Coastal Development causing run-off and loss of wildlife habitats.

• Take care with all beaches and watersides-- for oceans and rivers-- protect or plant buffer vegetation.
• Stay away from all birds, marine creatures, and wildlife on beaches. Keep your pets from bothering wildlife. Leave shells with anything in them in the water.
• Push for building codes and zoning that protects the coastlines and marine areas, including tidepools, mangrove forests, and tidal wetlands.

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Get Involved Today--
Taking 7 Virtuous Steps of the Sea!

1) Bring to mind all your ocean experiences with their beauty, species, and peoples -- the wonder and delight of them. Focus on your love and gratitude for them, and seek out more of encounters of an ocean kind! And come to them with awe, prayer, and meditation to feel a connection with the Creator and all of creation. And savor the oxygen, rain, beach rest and sea recreation, jobs, seafood, medicines, and so much more that the oceans provide. It's time to give back!

2) Consider what steps you can take of those listed in protecting and restoring them from the Seven Deadly Sins of the Seas. Make a pledge to start with some actions now, and continue to add to them.

3) Get your family and friends involved.

4) Talk to and pray with your faith or spiritual community to start an IOEC group to become active together to protect and restore God's ocean systems and species and coastal communities. World Oceans Day has resource kits for faith-based communities. We have posters! And youth activities and volunteer links.

5) Download and use IOEC Resources to Activate Your Community --blog to stay up to date, posters, books and videos for discussions as they are developed -- and all the resources from other organizations listed. Let us know by contacting us. We'd love to hear about your work!

6) Volunteer in restoration. Make a connection with an ocean restoration, tree planting, or river restoration organization for you and your group to get involved as volunteers in hands-on outdoors work and enjoyment in God's wild creation. Bring youth along. Get t-shirts made so people know you are acting as a community of faith.

7) Vote, act, and speak out to encourage others and urge representatives to support ocean and marine species conservation, sustainable and fair trade seafood, climate care actions, reforestation, and replanting of native grasslands, and the banning of toxic chemicals that are flushed, drained, or wash into rivers and oceans.


And remember water is considered to have sacred properties in most faiths of the world so we need to call this to mind and remind others to care for and conserve this gift. Plant buffer zones to rivers and streams, and be care of everything that watching drains or flushes into it, remembering these things flow into wetlands, rivers, and eventually the sea. Don't flush toxic things down; and don't use pesticides or chemical fertilizers on your lawns and fields.

Thanks to NOAA and others for the use of their excellent photographs.