Celebrating Oceans Week 2022

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Tags: Movie nightOceans WeekPaint & SipPangea Seed FoundationReef clean upReef educationWorld Environment DayWorld Oceans DayWorld Reef Day

We did it again! Hamanasi celebrated Oceans Week beginning June 1 with World Reef Day and culminating on World Oceans Day on June 8. This year we set three objectives for our guests, staff and community:

  1. Experience the beauty and wonder of the reef;
  2. Gain knowledge on how to protect it;
  3. Take action.

EXPERIENCE THE BEAUTY & WONDER

Members of the Eco Kids Club and Green Team snorkeled at South Water Caye.

“People protect what they love.”
– Jacques Cousteau

With this in mind, we sought out to showcase just how wonderful the Belize Barrier Reef is.  Anyone who experiences it would fall in love with it and want to protect it. Surprising, only a small percentage of locals have been to the reef. Hamanasi aims to change this by working closely with the local community and offering the opportunity to all its staff to snorkel and dive the reef. 

On June 1st, for World Reef Day, the Hamanasi Green Team organized a reef clean up and educational snorkel.  Members of the Eco Kids Club were invited to participate, as many of them had never visited the barrier reef. They appreciated firsthand the magnificence of our natural reef, as well as the coral planting efforts of The Smithsonian Institution. It was a life defining moment, both for our Green Team Members, some of who were also first-time snorkelers, and even more so for the children. In the words of Jose Garcia, Grounds supervisor, “My daughter left from here with a huge smile on her face.  Thank you for giving us the experience of a lifetime.” 

Movie night at Hamanasi

We also couldn’t forget our beloved guests. Though many of them do snorkel and dive the reef, we sought to give them an even more in-depth view of this amazing ecosystem. We did this by hosting a movie night featuring the documentary film Puff: Wonders of the Reef. The film offered our guests a new vantage point to the beauty and wonder that a barrier reef offers.

GAINING KNOWLEDGE

More than just appreciation for the reef and our oceans, we sought to arm our guests, staff and community with the knowledge on how to go about protecting these ecosystems. Each day of Reef Week we shared a tip on how we can protect our oceans with everyday actions.

Beyond this we also partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and OCEANA Belize to share with our guests and local school children practical knowledge on how we can all work together to care for what we have. Some of the topics covered included how to identify reef safe sunscreen (hint: look at the active ingredients, not the label), the effects of marine litter, supporting alternative livelihoods (think seaweed products), and making sustainable seafood choices. 

Our Green Team also partook in a fun educational activity with our guests: a marine themed Paint & Sip. Inspired by murals from the Pangea Seed Foundation’s Sea Walls – Artists for Oceans initiative, guests were able to put their own artistic flair to these highly significant images. Green Team members joined in during this activity to educate our guests on the significance of each image and share practical tips on how to care for our oceans and reefs. What was the drink of the day? The Blue Hole, of course!

TAKING ACTION

Community youths and the Green Team clean up around Hopkins

“When you know better, you do better.”

– Maya Angelou

During Oceans week we gave our guests, staff and community members the opportunity to join us in doing better. Two beach clean ups were hosted during this week. The first clean-up was undertaken by the Green Team and the Eco Kids Club after their educational snorkel at the Carrie Bow Caye, home to the Smithsonian Institution Marine Field Station. The second cleanup was completed along our Hopkins community beach.  Here, local youth joined in with our Green Team and other Hamanasi staff to pick up a whopping 265 pounds of trash! 

Dive Instructor Sam spears an invasive lionfish.

We also redoubled our efforts to promote lionfish spearing as an additional dive activity, assisting in the eradication of this invasive species. So far this year we’ve speared 484 lionfish and counting.  Our staff also had the opportunity to participate in our ‘Ride your Bike to Work Competition’ encouraging them to reduce their carbon footprint by choosing a cleaner, healthier mode of transportation. 

We look forward to celebrating Oceans Week with each of you next year.  Until then let’s continue engaging in practical solutions to protect our reefs and oceans.