You may already know that "about 97 percent of Earth's water is in the ocean". But did you know that "a protein found in a jellyfish has contributed to cancer research" or that "cigarette butts are one of the top items found in beach clean-ups"? Finding out these curious, fascinating and sometimes alarming facts can help us understand how we humans are linked to the ocean and its wellbeing.

We all know the ocean gives us life by generating oxygen. It also serves to regulate our climate. The ocean provides us with food, jobs and wellbeing. But our ocean is in crisis: a multitude of threats including climate change, overfishing and pollution put our ocean at risk, and no single action or entity can reverse this trend.

Changing course requires us to work together, changing mind-sets and policies, as governments, businesses and individuals, on multiple fronts.

The Make Europe Blue campaign is calling on you – citizens, businesses, organisations, authorities, celebrities, educators – to make a pledge to help the ocean. Your pledge is a personal promise or action that will keep our ocean healthy.

With a personal commitment from every single one of us, we can protect the ocean and make Europe Blue.

Joining is easy:

• Get inspired by our Ocean facts
• Check out potential ideas for pledges and submit your pledge HERE
• Share it with others using the #MakeEUBlue hashtag.

Your action matters. Make your pledge

Anybody can submit a pledge and any type of pledge that serves our ocean will be accepted:

• As a citizen: You can avoid single-use plastics, only eat sustainably caught seafood, or support a charity/NGO working for a healthy ocean.
• As a business: You can ban single-use plastics in the offices, or commit to ocean-friendly sourcing, such as avoiding products from deep-sea mining.
• As an organisation: You can build partnerships with similar organisations and develop projects to protect coastal areas, or sponsor ocean literacy events for citizens.
• As a celebrity: You can reduce your CO₂ emissions by choosing more sustainable travels from one destination to the other and use your platform to promote a sustainable ocean.
• As an educator: You can motivate your students by planning recycling or beach cleaning projects and fitting ocean literacy projects into your curriculum.
• … and that is just the start!

so use your imagination, get creative and together we will make this happen

Inspire others

Every action creates a new drop of blue on our European canvas. The more we do, the bluer Europe becomes.

If you are excited by this project, invite others to hop aboard: your friends, family, business partners, competitors, your preferred celebrity or influencer. Tag them on social media and challenge them to make Europe Blue!

Together – across borders, age groups, and cultures – we can take care of our shared ocean. We can make a difference, one pledge at a time.