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World Ocean Fes­ti­val Calls Cli­mate Action Heroes to Gov­er­nors Island on June 4

Jun 2, 2017 4:23 pm

World Ocean Fes­ti­val Calls Cli­mate Action Heroes to New York’s Gov­er­nors Island on June 4

Sup­port­ers of the #Paris­Agree­ment, Cli­mate Activists and Ocean Lovers to March on New York’s Water­ways and Gov­er­nors Island for @WorldOceanFest

The inau­gur­al World Ocean Fes­ti­val, orga­nized by The Glob­al Brain Foun­da­tion and host­ed by the City of New York, will fea­ture lead­ing marine biol­o­gists, ocean advo­cates, entre­pre­neurs, and more speak­ing at a free, pub­lic pro­gram. The Fes­ti­val is an effort to bring togeth­er peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions who care deeply about the ocean and who will stand togeth­er for its pro­tec­tion in advance of ​“The Ocean Con­fer­ence” at the Unit­ed Nations (June 5 – 9).

“The effects of cli­mate change are no longer a ques­tion — it is a real­i­ty that we must proac­tive­ly take action to mit­i­gate and reduce our con­tri­bu­tions to,” said Michael Samuelian, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“As a frag­ile island des­ti­na­tion sur­round­ed by New York Har­bor, Gov­er­nors Island is proud to strong­ly advo­cate for the health of our waters and sup­port the World Ocean Festival.”

World Ocean Fes­ti­val Activ­i­ties Include: 

• Ocean March­es (New York Har­bor): The World Ocean Fes­ti­val includes the first-of-its-kind march on the water­ways of New York to send a mes­sage of sup­port for our world’s ocean. Boats will gath­er near Pier 64 on the Hud­son Riv­er Sun­day, June 4 start­ing at 11:00 a.m. East­ern Time. The his­toric John J. Har­vey fire­boat will lead the march through the water begin­ning at 12:00 p.m. Boats will round the tip of Gov­er­nors Island at approx­i­mate­ly 1:00 p.m. and then head up the East Riv­er to fin­ish in front of Unit­ed Nations Head­quar­ters at approx­i­mate­ly 2:30 p.m. For safe­ty, boats must reg­is­ter online to par­tic­i­pate at: http://​www​.worl​do​cean​fest​.org. Satel­lite Ocean March­es are being orga­nized in Guadala­jara, Mex­i­co, Tener­ife, Philip­pines, Aus­tralia, Myan­mar, Nepal, Batam, Indone­sia with Bali-based World Ocean Fes­ti­val sup­port­er and lead­ing ocean activist orga­ni­za­tion Bye Bye Plas­tic Bags. 

• Ocean Vil­lage (Gov­er­nors Island): On Gov­er­nors Island, there will be a Youth Ral­ly and land march as well as exhibits, awards and activ­i­ties at Ocean Vil­lage on the Island’s south­ern tip: Pic­nic Point. The World Ocean Fes­ti­val Speak­er Forum spon­sored by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey will fea­ture inter­ac­tive pan­el dis­cus­sions with lead­ing ocean experts, entre­pre­neurs, sci­en­tists and advo­cates on the top­ics of Coral Reefs and Cli­mate Change, Plas­tic Pol­lu­tion, Fish­ing and Seafood and Urban Ocean Con­ser­va­tion from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. East­ern Time. The pro­gram is free and open to the pub­lic at the Ocean Vil­lage exhi­bi­tion area at Pic­nic Point at the south­ern tip of Gov­er­nors Island. The pro­gram will be capped off with a clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny – fea­tur­ing remarks by world renowned ocean sci­en­tist and advo­cate Dr. Sylvia Earle. 

pro­gram list­ing and speak­er bios. The pro­gram sched­ule is: 

EXHIBITS & ACTIV­I­TIES
10:00 am — 5:00 pm:

Exhibitors — Nation­al Geo­graph­ic, The Nature Con­ser­van­cy, Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety, Hel­lo Fresh, Mon­terey Bay Aquar­i­um; Seafood Watch Pro­gram, Guy Har­vey Ocean Foun­da­tion VR Lounge, Lone­ly Whale Foun­da­tion, Mis­sion Blue, Ocean­ic, Fund​ingth​eO​cean​.org, NYC Junior Ambas­sadors, NGO Com­mit­tee on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment-NY, Peace Boat, Surfrid­ers Foun­da­tion, Bil­lion Oys­ters Project, Har­bor School, River­keep­ers, Water­front Alliance, Clear­wa­ter, Sec­ond Muse, Peter Lynn Kites, Bye Bye Plas­tic Bags, Heirs to Our Oceans, Sea Youth Rise Up

Speak­er Forum — Morn­ing Ses­sion
brought to you by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey

11:00 — 12:00 pm: CORAL REEFS & CLIMATE

INAU­GUR­AL CER­E­MO­NY & AWARDS
12:00 — 12:30 pm: Pre­sent­ed by H.E. Mr. Peter Thom­son, Pres­i­dent of the UN Gen­er­al Assem­bly
City of New York, The Nature Con­ser­van­cy, Toy­ota, and others

OCEAN MARCH VIEW­ING
12:30 — 1:00 pm: Fijian Mil­i­tary Band and the Youth Rally

YOUTH RAL­LY
11:30 am: YOUTH GATH­ER­ING START­ING AT CAS­TLE WILLIAMS ON GOV­ER­NORS ISLAND
1:00 — 1:15 pm: YOUTH RAL­LY & REMARKS
1:30 — 1:45 pm: YOUTH VOIC­ES FOR THE OCEAN

Speak­er Forum — After­noon Ses­sion
brought to you by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey

1:30 — 2:40 pm: PLAS­TIC POL­LU­TION
2:40 — 3:30 pm: FISH­ING & SEAFOOD
3:30 — 4:30 pm: URBAN OCEAN CONSERVATION

CLOS­ING CER­E­MO­NY
Dr. Sylvia Ear­le & World Ocean Fes­ti­val Founders
4:30 — 5:00 pm

World Ocean Fes­ti­val Supporters

The City of New York and The Glob­al Brain are joined by lead­ers in ocean con­ser­va­tion, advo­ca­cy, and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment our Found­ing Part­ners Mis­sion Blue, Ocean Elders, Ocean­ic and The Nature Con­ser­van­cycre­ator of the Mirai fuel cell vehi­cle and Nation­al Geo­graph­ic.

Core Sup­port­ers of the World Ocean Fes­ti­val include Peace Boat, Connect4Climate, Ocean Col­lec­tiv and NGO Com­mit­tee of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment-NYAddi­tion­al sup­port­ers include: Clas­sic Har­bor Line, Con­scious Good, Ocean Film Fes­ti­val, Style & Resilience, Ter­ra­Cy­cle, Water­keep­er Alliance, AEFo­cus, Con­nect 4 Cli­mate, NGO Com­mit­tee of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment-NY, Met­calf Insti­tute, Sus­tain­able Ocean Alliance, We Are The Oceans, Clean Seas, Bye Bye Plas­tics, Mon­terey Bay Aquar­i­um, Nation­al Edu­ca­tors Asso­ci­a­tion, Mukaro, Rise­UP, Blue Mind, The Foun­da­tion Cen­ter, Water­front Alliance, Sailors for the Sea, Earth Day Net­work, The Lone­ly Whale Foun­da­tion, Sea Youth Rise Up, Guy Har­vey Ocean Foun­da­tion, Blue Ocean Net­work, Sec­ond Muse, Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety, NYC Junior Ambas­sadors, World Oceans Day, Big Blue and You, Youth Ocean Con­ser­va­tion Sum­mit, The Ocean Project, One Ocean FM, We Jour­ney.

The World Ocean Fes­ti­val is a pub­lic event host­ed by the City of New York and orga­nized by The Glob­al Brain Foun­da­tion to raise peo­ples’ voic­es for the preser­va­tion and sus­tain­able use of the Ocean (Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goal 14) in advance of the The Ocean Con­fer­ence at Unit­ed Nations Head­quar­tershttp://​www​.worl​do​cean​fest​.org/@WorldOceanFest, on Insta­gram @WorldOceanFestival, and on Face­book @WorldOceanFestival.

***NOTE *** Press is invit­ed to board ear­li­er fer­ries from Man­hat­tan begin­ning at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Fer­ries are also avail­able from Brook­lyn start­ing at 11:00 a.m. Press are encour­aged to RSVP for waived fare (ann@​globalbrain.​is).

About:

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to trans­form Gov­er­nors Island into a vibrant resource for New York City, mak­ing this island at the cen­ter of New York Har­bor a des­ti­na­tion with extra­or­di­nary pub­lic open space, as well as edu­ca­tion­al, not-for-prof­it and com­mer­cial facil­i­ties. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it http://​www​.gov​is​land​.com/.

The Glob­al Brain Foun­da­tion is a 501 C3 not for prof­it cor­po­ra­tion. Our mis­sion is to cre­ate new ini­tia­tives and ven­tures to tack­le issues where mass par­tic­i­pa­tion and col­lec­tive action can unlock big change. Our cur­rent ini­tia­tives are in sup­port of the Unit­ed Nations 17 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals and new cli­mate agree­ments. To learn more, vis­it: http://​www​.glob​al​brain​.is/.

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MEDIA CON­TACTS:

Ann Boyd, World Ocean Festival

310−384−2790 (mobile)

ann@​globalbrain.​is

Sarah Krautheim, Gov­er­nors Island

646−413−1547 (mobile)

skrautheim@​govisland.​nyc.​gov