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REEF Environmental Fair Keynote


  • Humboldt University Arcata, California USA (map)

Keynote Speaker 2 Day Conference

The Our Ocean & YOU campaign reaches more than two dozen schools in the Humboldt County area every spring at the Redwood Environmental Education Fair (REEF).  REEF is sponsored by the Humboldt County Office of Education, Humboldt State University, and Suddenlink. REEF provides a forum for community professionals to share environmental concepts with elementary and middle school students.

Journey around the world underwater with a dynamic multi-media presentation combining stories from around the world. Annie Crawley, aka Ocean Annie, shares stories from diving with sharks & mantas to humpback whales and coral reefs. You will experience diving in the Salish Sea and blackwater diving. Once she hooks you with the amazing life below the sea, she introduces real world topics impacting our world ocean including ocean pollution, sustainability and climate change. You will be wowed right into action to become the voice of our ocean.

“Many people look at ‘garbage’ and ‘trash’ as dirty words. Not me. These subjects need to be discussed as the average person creates one ton of trash a year. How many times in the past week have you thought or said, ‘Oh, just throw it away?’ Well what if you realized, there is no away, everything goes somewhere, that’s the first step in understanding this huge problem.” Annie Crawley explains. Incorporating science, basic oceanography, geography, marine biology, journalism and storytelling, she takes you on an adventure of discovery.

Scientists discovered and have been studying an area of the Ocean 1,000 miles off shore where waste accumulates in the North Pacific Gyre, more commonly known as “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Annie Crawley spent 22 days at sea documenting this area for Project Kaisei aboard the SEAPLEX cruise with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Annie takes you on a journey so you too can understand the potential effects marine debris has on the largest ecosystem in the world, and ultimately us. Be Inspired as you learn what is happening in Washington State to Ban Plastic Bags statewide as well as what other corporations are doing because of kids. Work with Annie to help change the world.

"Our environment is a reflection of who we are as a society.  In order for there to be a true shift in how we treat our environment, we need to change the way we view our world." - Annie Crawley