World Oceans Day

8 June is World Oceans Day, a day to celebrate the seas and oceans of our world, and the life within them. Find out what we have planned and how you can join in.

Our oceans and seas connect us all, from tropical reefs to cold arctic waters. The diverse life beneath the waves must be protected.

Climate change is happening on a local and global scale and directly affects every one of us and every life form on Earth, but we believe there is still the opportunity to mitigate the crisis.

Join in with us on World Oceans Day (8 June) and Sea Turtle Week (8-16 June) to learn new things about ocean life, take part in challenges, create community artwork and quiz our curators.

Artist takeover

Help create artist Tom Van Herrewege’s beautiful green turtle on Instagram, as part of his Erasing Nature series, highlighting the fragility of marine life. Tom will use your comments to erase the animal, sharing his progress throughout the week. In the finished artwork we will see the animal obscured by comments, disappearing as green turtles are in the wild.

Ask a Curator

Join Emma Nicholls, Deputy Keeper of Natural History at the Horniman, on twitter in this Q&A session from 1.30 – 3pm. Home schooling and have a burning question about ocean life? Now is your chance.

Create your own swimming sea turtle

Our latest Make! tutorial gives you a turtle template to download and colour in, and gives you instructions on how to make it swim.

A World of Stories: The Selkie Story

Join storyteller Paul Rubenstein for an enchanting tale about the Selkie, magical beings who can change from seals to humans.

Nature Challenge: World Oceans Day

Take part in mini-challenges to learn how you can protect our oceans, adding to your Nature Notebook.

#MuseumBuddy

We are taking part in #MuseumBuddy, starting on World Oceans Day, with The Roseville Utility Exploration Center – @UKI_Exploration to see what we can learn from them on encouraging our visitors to discover new ways to save water, reduce waste and protect our watershed.

Habitats Learning Resource

Are you looking for materials for home schooling? Download pictures and text from our Habitats Learning Resource to help.

Pledge to help protect our oceans

If you’ve been inspired to make one difference to help protect and restore our oceans, please share your pledge with us @HornimanMuseum and using #WorldOceansDay and #ProtectOurHome.

Our work so far

The Horniman announced its Climate and Ecology manifesto in January 2020, setting out our pledges and action plan for the Horniman to help shape a positive future for generations to come.

So far, our work has included replacing single-use plastic in the Cafe, composting our food waste, re-using the Aquarium’s waste-water and providing a haven for wildlife on our Nature Trail. In addition, our pioneering Project Coral work to stimulate coral reproduction is helping to save endangered corals and train conservationists.

The Horniman is the only museum where nature and culture can be viewed together in London. We feel we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to use our collections, and relationships with our visitors, to create a movement for positive environmental change.

Take part in our World Oceans Day activities and help to restore and protect our oceans.