I have been obsessed with the ocean since I first saw a National Geographic documentary about marine mammals. Dolphins were these beautiful, graceful, energetic, playful creatures that awe-struck me. It all started from there and age 21 my dreams came true of becoming a mermaid when I got my Open Water certification and became a scuba diver.

The ocean is beautiful and mystical, but when I came upon a plastic water bottle on a reef 8 stories underwater, I was confronted with the reality of the state of our oceans. Plastic pollution is chocking our planets sea life, acidification making shells disintegrate, dead zones suffocating fish, overfishing destroying habitats, oil spills killing sea birds, the list went on in waves of horror and sadness as it crushed me. How can I, a single person in the world possibly do anything to help? How can it make any bit of a difference? How can any of us?

I know I’m not alone in this feeling of insignificance. When it comes to conservation, there seems to be new problems everyday, and very rarely a viable solution.

Ocean Conservancy statisics from their annual International Costal Cleanup

So then I saw these statistics from Ocean Conservancy I felt uplifted. They organizes 1 day of beach clean ups and with the concentrated efforts a huge impact is made.

So I thought, how can this happen every single day? And it dawned on me that if we did this daily, we could clean up the oceans.

What do people need in order to make picking up a piece or two of trash part of their beach visit?

This compelled me to design for small difference, and small wins, everyday. When we focus on the everyday people who appreciate the beach, walk their dogs and take their children there, we can collectively add the numbers up all year long to create real impact.