Partner Spotlight: Ocean Week Canada 2022

Announcing: Ocean Week Canada 2022 and a national summer celebration of ocean engagement and marine conservation

PRESS RELEASE – Today, the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition (COLC), together with 14 national partner organizations, announced a pan-Canada educational and conservation celebration that will kick off during Ocean Week Canada (3-12 June 2022) and continue with events and activities throughout the summer. 

Ocean Week Canada 2022 and the ‘Ocean Festival’ will be an exciting way for all Canadians to engage with the ocean. It will create a surge of awareness about the ocean and strengthen our appreciation of the waterways that connect us, inland to the sea. The celebration will engage over 3 million Canadians through in-person and virtual events at local, regional, and national scales. Cultural and educational programming for schools (June and September), science centres, museums, public libraries, and other community spaces will include, for example, a travelling Canadian Geographic ocean-themed giant floor map with Ocean School’s augmented reality experiences, video collections from Indigenous Water Guardians and coastal communities, and interactive installations like the Sacred Journeys exhibit

Photo credit: Tanya Kirnishni/Canadian Geographic

The Ocean Festival officially kicks off on June 8, World Ocean Day, as part of Ocean Week Canada 2022. Over the following three months and beyond, Canadians will learn about the importance of the ocean and the sustainable use of it. The festival will strengthen Canadians’ connections to their local watersheds and Canada’s coastline—the longest in the world—and inspire community-based action to ensure a healthy ocean for future generations. The festival will celebrate Indigenous-led, community, government, and private sector conservation success stories and help to build momentum towards reaching Canada’s marine conservation targets of protecting 30% of coastal waters by 2030. 

The networks, events, and resources developed beginning with Ocean Week Canada 2022 will lay a foundation of ocean awareness for the forthcoming global gathering at the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) in Vancouver. Ocean Week Canada’s annual programming from 2022 to 2030 will ensure a legacy of continued engagement by Canadians throughout the United Nations Ocean Decade

The Ocean Week Canada and Ocean Festival partnership, led by the COLC in collaboration with the IMPAC5 Secretariat, incorporates 14 diverse organizations/institutions from across Canada and is made possible through a contribution of $2.3 million from the Government of Canada through the Oceans Management Contribution Program. These partners include Ocean Networks Canada, Canadian Geographic, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ingenium, Indigenous Leadership Initiative, Parks Canada, Students on Ice Foundation, Ocean School (a collaboration of the National Film Board of Canada and Dalhousie University), Water Rangers, the Canadian Network for Ocean Education, Hakai Institute, the Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOP) Canada, Entremission, and Media Style. To learn more about Ocean Week Canada and the Ocean Festival, visit www.oceanweekcan.ca