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"Fishes Feed Us" is a collaborative, art-science, public awareness project that draws attention to the critical ill health of our planet's oceans. It is designed to engage and empower youth to become "ocean stewards" on behalf of our oceans and ocean life.
Problem Addressed:
Specifically, this project highlights the human consequences of our rapidly diminishing fish supplies. 1 in 5 people globally [about one billion], depend on fish as their primary source of protein, and 200 million depend on the sustainability of ocean fisheries for their livelihoods. Children and families in coastal fishing villages [mostly in developing countries] are already suffering from rampant over-fishing and the destruction of their natural legacy of ocean fisheries and their ecosystems.
In terms of the "big picture," there seems to be a profound disconnect between "man" and nature. We are not aware of how our individual, daily actions [eating endangered seafood, etc.] are making this situation worse. It is our hope that "Fishes Feed Us" will help to provoke a new consciousness of and respect for the interdependency between sustaining our life on planet Earth and the health of our oceans.
Read about the difficult challenges of creating ocean awareness.
Project Objectives [click here]
Project Components:
~ a KidsFishesBlog creates a world stage for the words of youth directly impacted by our collapsing ocean fisheries
~ small, ocean creature animations created by youth for our project web-pages
~ a performance as a public awareness youth action
~ documentation web-pages, including step-by-step "How-To Guides," to inspire project replication and public awareness actions by others
Philippine teen bloggers with fisher youth (seated)
Visit our KidsFishesBlog site...
See more photos of our bloggers...
Empowering Youth & Intergenerational Education:
This project has been designed to engage the minds, hearts, and enthusiasm of youth, which is a largely under-utilized human resource. We want to inspire them to recognize and exercise their personal spheres of influence by informing their parents, friends, teachers, and community members about the ocean problems, what's at stake, and how each of us can help by:
~ eating only seafood that is not endangered [see pocket guide cards]
~ participating in ocean policy campaigns by signing petitions
~ supporting the work of ocean conservation organizations
~ urging local schools to include environmental education curriculum
Ms. Juanita Castano
Director of UN Environment Programme
opened World Environment Day festivities
The" Fishes Feed Us" performance was sponsored
by the United Nation's Environment Programme,
and premiered at
the United Nations Plaza as part of
the United Nations' World Environment Day
on June 5, 2007 in New York City.
dancing anchovies at United Nations performance
performance monologues spoken at United Nations
The Future of "Fishes Feed Us":
We have created these web-pages to inspire and help others create their own version of this project, as an action they can take to heighten public awareness about our ocean crisis via the voices and involvement of youth. Ultimately, we hope that the youth participants of "Fishes Feed Us" will transfer their new ocean literacy awareness and empathy for the kids in the Pacific Rim, to their friends and extended family members, an integral aspect of becoming an "ocean steward" for our precious life source.
We anticipate that this learning and performance experience
will be memorable for the rest of our participants' lives!
Explore our navigation links below to:
~ understand why we created a KidsFishesBlog
~ read the 10 poignant monologues that were created from the blog for our performance [you can use any from our blog for YOUR performance!]
~ see photos [new video coming soon!] of our youth bloggers, performers, and creators of the animated ocean creatures on these web-pages
~ explore the educational resources to become informed
~ find-out that it only takes one-minute to take action... sign important online petitions that can influence ocean conservation legislation
~ learn about our project sponsors, partners, and collaborators
~ discover how YOU CAN create an ocean public awareness or action project
See how we created our performance fish objects
or, do a beach clean-up and use colorful debris on
some local reeds to create your own "fishes"
Send us information about YOUR ocean youth project so we can highlight it on our "Fishes Feed Us" web-pages and promote it as an "exemplar" to others!
Meryl Meisler with her 8th grade multimedia class
[from the Institute of Collaborative Education, NYC]
that created the ocean wildlife animations for these pages.
"Fishes Feed Us" is the newest component produced by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) for its Beneath-the-SEE global public awareness initiative. Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. is a 19-year old, 501(c)(3) cultural organization based in New York City. ASCI has already received much commitment of participation from both the arts and marine science communities to collaborate on Beneath-the-SEE, including an endorsement letter from Klaus Topfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (2003-2006). We welcome partnerships and sponsorships!
"Swordfish" animation by Angus Davidison, 8th grader at ICE
Institute for Collaborative Education, NYC
(a Project Partner via artist-teacher, Meryl Meisler)
We hope our project will
inspire YOU to become
an "ocean steward"!
[Print-out any of these pages
without our site's side & top columns
by clicking on the print icon in the right column.]
PROJECT NAVIGATION LINKS:
project l kids blog l performance l partners
background l ocean facts l challenges
resources l how you can help
how-to create your own l "spin-offs"
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