KIDS OCEAN DAY

oceanrecov

2013-11-14 11:19

Hong Kong Children Create Aerial Art Spectacle on Repulse Bay Beach

Friday, 8th November 2013

Between 12:00 and 2:00pm

(Hong Kong, 8th November 2013) –

Close to 1000 children on Repulse Bay Beach formed an aerial art spectacular as part of Kids Ocean Day in the form of a shark with a detached fin. The children then moved in unison to re-attach the fin, symbolizing the improved health of the ocean environment. International artist John Quigley created the original sketch by the winner of the children’s drawing competition, in large scale on the beach. The event was preceded by a week of ocean talks at local school assemblies. Kids Ocean Week delivered an exciting environmental education program, which is designed to motivate children to care about beaches and the ocean ecosystem, and what they can do in their own neighborhoods to reduce the impact on our ocean environment. This included an emphasis on recycling and waste reduction, which is an important topic today in Hong Kong’s community. Kids Ocean Day is organized by Hong Kong’s Ocean Recovery Alliance and the Los Angeles organizations Malibu Foundation and Spectral Q, with assistance from performance consultancy Bonza Pie, visual and creative agency LHK Media and Tai Tam Tuk Eco Education Centre.

This is the second year to be bringing the event to the Southern District of Hong Kong and the only one of its type in Asia. This pioneering event of human beach art involves the local and international school children of Hong Kong and is now a featured event in the Hong Kong calendar attracting children from all walks of life. The Malibu Foundation and Spectral Q from California have been creating educational and environmental awareness events on the beach for 20 years, with tens of thousands of participants. According to the Malibu Foundation and Kids Ocean Day founder and executive director Michael Klubock, “Our program is about raising awareness to facilitate behavioral change. Throughout the year, we have taught students that beneath the surface of the ocean, animals are being impacted by our actions on land, sometimes eating plastic, getting tangled in nets, and being impacted by pollution. Today, we took them to the beach for more education and beach appreciation to bring engagement around preservation.”

The goal of this event is to raise awareness and understanding about the health of the ocean and it’s ecosystem to Hong Kong’s youths. This unique program started with a drawing competition within both local and international schools. The winning picture (a design based on the theme “What Does the Ocean Have to Say?” encapsulating the message of ocean protection) was created on the beach by over 800 children - the next generation of ocean ambassadors. “Today the children have spoken out as a group, using art as a way of expressing themselves to initially create the shape of a shark which lost its fin. As a critical connection in the food chain, which regulates the health of the ocean, their image sends a message to all of us that sharks are important for our own well being. The children who formed the fin, then joined their friends and peers in the main art display, creating a healthy and

happy looking shark which signified their hope in protecting these animals,” says Doug Woodring, Event Organizer and Founder of Ocean Recovery Alliance.

“The group aerial art experience encourages cooperation and gives voice to the aspirations and dreams of the students. It’s beautiful to see how these kids inspire others to care for the environment with their creativity.” says artist John Quigley, the founder of Spectral Q and the Kids Ocean Day Aerial Art Program

As the lead sponsor of Kids Ocean Day, Pacific Andes Group is proud to be a Hong Kong based seafood company, which has operations throughout the world involved in fishing, processing, distribution and sales of the full range of seafood products. "We are committed to the sustainability of our oceans which is critically important for food security and to the long term sustainability of communities in the future", said Ms Jessie Ng, Executive Director, Pacific Andes Group. "We are very pleased to support Kids Ocean Day as an opportunity for young people to learn about the importance of caring about our oceans and the practical steps they can take to contribute".

The goal of this event is to raise awareness and understanding about the health of the ocean and it’s ecosystem to Hong Kong’s youths. This unique program started with a drawing competition within both local and international schools. The winning picture (a design based on the theme “What Does the Ocean Have to Say?”, encapsulating the message of ocean protection) was created on the beach by over 800 children - the next generation of ocean ambassadors. “Today the children have spoken out as a group, using art as a way of expressing themselves to initially create the shape of a shark which lost its fin. As a critical connection in the food chain which regulates the health of the ocean, their image sends a message to all of us that sharks are important for our own well being. The children who formed the fin, then joined their friends and peers in the main art display, creating a healthy and happy looking shark which signified their hope in protecting these animals,” says Doug Woodring, Event Organizer and Founder of Ocean Recovery Alliance.

Kids Ocean Day aims to inspire children by:

Showing something that is loved (Beaches, oceans, animals, clean water)

Giving reasons for loving it (Source of air, food, and recreation)

Showing damage being done to it (Entangled animals, dirty neighborhoods and beaches)

Showing how it is being damaged. (People littering neighborhoods and showing storm drain connection)

Giving people something to do about it (Reduce litter, recycle, do a beach cleanup, do a neighborhood clean-up)

We swim in the ocean. We sail on the ocean. We fish in the ocean. We walk our dogs beside the ocean. The sea pulls more and more of us to live by the ocean, with two-thirds of the world’s population already living within 80km of the sea. Hong Kong’s biggest natural asset is the ocean, and with the Hong Kong Government’s recent fishing ban on trawling in all of Hong Kong waters, we now have an exceptional opportunity as a community to really bring our local ocean back to life. Already, positive results have been seen, showing proof that if we give the ocean a chance to heal itself, it is able to do so.

The focus of Ocean Recovery Alliance is to bring together new ways of thinking, technologies, creativity and collaborations in order to introduce innovative projects and initiatives that will help improve our ocean environment. This includes creating business opportunities for local communities when applicable, in order to address some of the pressing issues that our ocean faces today. The Ocean Recovery Alliance’s is one of the only NGO’s to be working with both the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank on their respective plastic pollution reduction programs. These include two projects announced at the Clinton Global Initiative (the Plastic Disclosure Project and the Global Alert platform). The group hosted the Plasticity Forum in Hong Kong in June 2013, as well as the HK-SF Int’l Ocean Film Festival and Ocean Art Walk.

The Ocean Recovery Alliance is a registered charitable organization in Hong Kong and California (www.oceanrecov.org)

The Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education is a non-profit organization specializing in school outreach and coastal quality issues. The Founder and Executive Director, Michael Klubock, is a sailor turned environmental educator. His love for the beaches and oceans inspired the creation of a school assembly education effort to get more kids to the beach and in touch with nature. While developing and presenting the program to the schools, he personally funded and established the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education. The program offers a comprehensive, multi-tiered program that incorporates a complete watershed approach to storm water education and consists of: school assemblies, lesson plans, beach clean-ups and an aerial art project.

The Malibu Foundation is a Los Angeles City based organization. The Malibu Foundation takes it’s name from Malibu, that means, “Where the surf sounds loudly” and “Where the mountains meet the sea.” The appreciation of the beaches and oceans is the value that drives the Foundation to outreach to underserved communities in Los Angeles. Our annual KIDS OCEAN DAY Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Up field trip connects KIDS to the beaches and oceans and contributes to their appreciation of our shared resources. This experience actually gets children’s feet and hands in the sand. One of the basic concepts of Environmental Education and “The Growing Greener Schools” Program is to get the children outside and in touch with nature.

“The aerial art on the beach in Hong Kong is kid-designed, and represents their concerns about the ocean environment. The image today is a message from the children alerting the world about the need to protect sharks. They are sharing their appreciation of the ocean and the need to also protect it from the everyday trash and plastic litter that flows from our daily lives, sometimes reaching the ocean and negatively impacting marine life. Through the school assembly talks we give, and the art that the students create, we are building a generation of inspired and motivated champions and teachers for our beaches, ocean and local communities.”

The Malibu Foundation coordinates the annual KIDS OCEAN DAY Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Up in Los Angeles. Since 1991 the Malibu Foundation’s Adopt-A-Beach School Assembly Program has been seen by over 660,000 California school children. Over 112,000 children from the program have participated in 20 KIDS OCEAN DAY Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Ups.

The Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to a sustainable and healthy planet for all life by educating and motivating people into action.

Spectral Q Aerial Art is a unique medium of communication that is designed to build community and inspire creativity.

Aerial Artist John Q has created over 150 Human Aerial Art Images around the world on every continent and has virtually directed and coached over 100 additional images as non-commercial communications.

Spectral Q has the largest body of work in this medium. Spectral Q Aerial Art evolved out of John’s work as an educator and environmental advocate. He saw a need for communities to express their dreams and to address urgent issues. This unique mix of human installation, aerial photography, and political activism brings together communities to create large-scale messages for the common good. Focusing on themes of health, human rights, social justice, ecological balance, democracy, and freedom, the work strives to liberate the spirit and inspire unity and creative activation through participation.

Lead Sponsor:

Pacific Andes Group is a world leader in the harvesting, sourcing, processing, distribution and sales of a full range of seafood products. The Group is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is based in Hong Kong and has businesses across all continents, including in the People’s Republic of China, the USA and Japan, with strategic investments in Germany, France and Australia. The Group is one of the world’s largest producers of fishmeal and fish oil through its operations in Peru. Through its subsidiary, the China Fishery Group that is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, the Group has fishing operations in various fisheries throughout the world. The Group is a leading processor and supplier of frozen fish products to many markets throughout the world, having its largest processing plant in Hongdao, China.

Sponsors: