O’Dyssey – The ocean day 2021

Our foundation  Free Spirit has created the event « O’DYSSEY – the ocean day » in collaboration with the city of Paris in order to celebrate the wold ocean day. The event was on 26th June 2021. That event was located in the one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Anybody could join that initiative which had a mission : raising public awareness on ocean protection and marine wildlife conservation.

The goal of our non profit organization is to create an event with a strong impact. We invited more than 20 other non profit organizations such as Greenpeace, Surfrider, Sea Shepherd and also private companies and startups that create a solution with a positive impact for the ocean and the marine wildlife.

World Ocean Day is an international day that takes place annually on 8 June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. « World Oceans Day » was officially recognised by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fosters public interest in the protection of the ocean and the sustainable management of its resources.

The purpose of O’Dyssey – The ocean day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilize and unite the population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.

By working together, we can — and will — protect and restore our shared ocean.

• Conferences
• Keynotes
• Round tables
• Workshops
• Games
• Exhibition
• Movies

It was such a great honor for Free Spirit to collaborate with the US Embassy Paris and the US Department of State. The US Embassy sponsored the event, the art exhibition and collaborate with Free Spirit to raise awareness on illegal marine wildlife trafficking. We made a conference together in collaboration with IFAW to talk about that very important topic. Wildlife trafficking is decimating wildlife populations of critical species with spillover effects that disrupt entire ecological communities, and driving some species to extinction.

Illegal activities on the ocean include breaking fishing laws, poaching, ignoring marine protected areas, and polluting. Such actions contaminate or destroy delicate marine habitats—including coral reefs or sea turtle nesting beaches—and they deplete fish populations, upsetting the entire marine food chain. Countless species of marine animals die when accidentally caught in fishing gear; many of these animals are already victims of illegal harvest and trade.

Here are some examples of marine animals that suffer from illegal activities at sea:

• Sea turtles
• Sharks
• Vaquita
• Whales
• Corals
• Bluefin tuna

The first edition of O’DYSSEY THE OCEAN DAY was an amazing success ! More than 850 visitors joined the event including children. There were a lot of workshops for adults and kids, several movies, keynotes with good speakers. The art exhibition was amazing as there were many very talented photographers and painters.