A wave of youth ocean activism in Boston

With the Gulf of Maine heating up faster than 96 percent of our oceans, students around New England are motivated– now more than ever– to take action to conserve ocean habitats, protect threatened marine creatures and fight plastic pollution. On Sunday, over 150 students from Amherst College to the University of Rhode Island flocked to the oceanside campus of UMass Boston for the first-ever New England Youth Oceans Summit. 

The program, hosted by Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center alongside our partners at MASSPIRG Students, brought together leaders in environmental advocacy, marine research and policy to share their expertise with young people on pressing ocean issues and tools to protect its wildlife and ecosystems. It included panels and workshops on saving the critically endangered right whale, the importance of permanently protecting ocean hotspots like Cashes Ledge, reducing plastics which pollute our oceans, and taking action against deep-sea mining.

“Young people and students love the ocean. But saving the ocean takes more than love. We need to turn that love into political action,” said Ashanti Mclean, sophomore Environmental Studies major at UMass Boston and MASSPIRG Students Board Member.

And turn that into political action they did: the Summit marked a culmination point after a year of campaigning to protect Cashes Ledge, in which students collected over 6,000 campaign actions to deliver to the Biden Administration. From writing and illustrating postcards to decision-makers, to signing petitions against deep-sea mining, to making eco-activist collages with our partners at Bow Seat Ocean Awareness, the students that attended the Summit took the opportunity to champion ocean conservation with the tools and lessons learned from panels.

During closing remarks– looking around the room– I saw bright, determined youth leaders  ready to create a healthy, thriving ocean for wildlife and generations to come. 

The event was made possible thanks to the generous support of our event partners: Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Surfrider Foundation of Massachusetts, UMass Boston School for the Environment, UMass Boston Office Campus Planning and Sustainability,  UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station, UMass Boston Urban Harbors Institute, The Ocean Project, World Ocean Day, Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation Law Foundation, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, the Ocean River Institute, Clean Water Fund: Rethink Disposable, Earth Echo International, Sustainable Solutions Lab, UMass Dartmouth Torch, The Calvin Project, UMass Dartmouth Torch.