Mary Jo Rhodes: Children's author of books about seahorses, sea turtles, octopus, kelp forests

Clean Up Beaches

Every September the Ocean Conservancy sponsors The International Coastal Clean Up Day. Volunteers pick up trash from coastlines, rivers and lakes. This is a great activity for school or Scout groups to participate in.

Click on my sea turtle adoption certificate to learn how you can adopt a sea turtle too!

Adopt an Undersea Animal

You can adopt an ocean animal through many organizations. You may receive a certificate, a picture, information about the animal, and possibly future updates about it. This is also a great activity for a family, class, or Scout group. You can adopt sea turtles, whales, dolphins, manatees, and many other animals. Here are a few:

Visit Your Local Aquarium

Most aquariums support education, research, and conservation projects that help undersea animals. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, for example, supports the seahorse conservation organization, Project Seahorse.

Make Smart Choices When Eating Seafood

Here is some information about how seafood choices can help protect the health of our oceans:

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Seafood Watch

More Suggestions for Helping Sea Animals

Marinebio.org: 101 Ways to Make a Difference—Local Solutions to protect the Ocean

Read about what one 7-year-old girl did to help leatherback turtles at the Leatherback Trust website.

Have an Undersea-Theme Birthday Party

Have a birthday party and raise money for a conservation organization, or just raise awareness about your favorite undersea animal. Make a pin-the-fin (or pin-the-tail) game, create your own party decorations with stickers and rubber stamps of your favorite animal, show a movie such as March of the Penguins, and give animal-related favors, such as shark or dolphin gummy bears. See the Dover catalog for inexpensive sticker books, maze and puzzle books, and books with removable tattoos, and stained glass-coloring books with sea animal or undersea themes.