Inspiring a conservation generation.

Oceans cover 70 percent of the earth's surface. They produce around 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe, capture around a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions and are home to 94 percent of the earth's known living species. Ocean health is incredibly important to life on earth - and to Burgess too. It is quite literally the platform on which our business is built.

To ensure better husbandry of ocean health in the future it's critical to engage and guide this generation - and crucially the next - to create a healthier ocean that sustains us all. That is the aim of this Burgess Blue Oceans initiative.

To inspire our children and relations, and to support our home schooling parents, Burgess Blue Oceans launched a project with the inspirational Dee Caffari. Dee has sailed around the world six times and she is the first woman to have sailed single-handed and nonstop around the world in both directions. In 2017-18 she skippered Turn the Tide on Plastic in The Ocean Race and her crew sampled the oceans as they raced around the world to get a clearer idea of ocean health.

She produced an Ocean Health workbook to help children understand the importance of ocean conservation and what they can do about it. Our children were challenged to use the facts in the workbook, and a variety of other resources (below), to produce a Blue Oceans poster to show why the ocean is important and how we might stop the problem of single use plastic. We were delighted to receive some wonderfully creative entries - some even raided the herb garden to create corals and kelps.

‘My heartfelt congratulations to all the entrants,' said Dee. 'The work produced has been truly inspiring and a credit to you all. I particularly like the reference to the wildlife you have shown and the range of materials used has been impressive. Too difficult to select a winner as the standard is so high but I would ask you all to spread the message to your friends and family and make sure you help make a difference with the choices you make.’

There is much work to do and there are lots of ways you can help. You can support the global campaign at the heart of World Oceans Day 2020, which aims to save 30 percent of our blue planet by 2030. Learn more about 30x30 and sign the petition here.

For inspiration

• Take a look at the World Oceans Day website – including the youth section.
• Scroll through this absolutely brilliant graphic that shows which creatures live at different depths of the ocean. It is fascinating and we guarantee you’ll go through it more than once!
• Head over to National Geographic Kids for Ocean Facts
• Watch this wonderful video about the original Finding Nemo the clown fish and its other fishy friends – all narrated by children.
• Do you love the weird ones? Take a look at these brilliantly bizarre sea creatures.
• And this fascinating documentary about seahorses for National Geographic Kids.
• Watch this mind-blowing video of an octopus disguising itself as seaweed – it’s magic!
• Take a look at these plastic-busting tips.
• Watch this short video of deep sea creatures from everyone’s favourite environmentalist, David Attenborough.
• Watch this video for animals living on and under the Pacific Ocean
• If you’re in the UK, look at this BBC Bitesize video about Oceans.