We grow up protecting trees because as children we learn trees create oxygen through photosynthesis. We defend rainforests, recycle, and grow gardens. We understand the value of our environment through the lens of trees. It’s time we refocus, expand, and understand our environment adding a new lens―that of our ocean―our life source.
Our Ocean And You helps people understand how our lives are interconnected with the sea. We breathe ocean with every breath we take. Marine plants and phytoplankton produces more than 50% of the oxygen we need. The maps are wrong. Our ocean covers 70% of planet Earth, so really, we should be called planet Ocean. We are connected to the ocean through our air, water, climate, food, and economy. Yet, the ocean is often misunderstood, misrepresented, and undervalued by our society. Our history fills us with stories of conquering lands and people rather than living at one with our environment. Our ocean unites everyone and everything; without a healthy ocean, we are not healthy.
Our campaigns reach audiences with a goal to educate, inspire, and protect our life source. We create multi-media keynote presentations, workshops, immersive experiences, travel opportunities, teacher workshops, and more focusing on the beauty/importance of the ocean while exploring issues including pollution, sustainability and the impacts of climate change. Watch Breathe Ocean to see what we’ve created with schools and kids in our community.
During the past decade we’ve experienced unprecedented changes to our environment. We are depriving the ocean of its resources at an unsustainable rate. Dumping plastic into every water way creating havoc. We are changing water chemistry and the temperature because of carbon pollution. The ocean, our life support system, faces a devastating future if we don’t act now.
We recognize people created these problems and only we can be the solution. Public awareness drives policy and corporate change. Join the Our Ocean and You team and help create a paradigm shift in how we view our ocean. Stories are powerful tools. By opening conversations in our homes, communities, schools and workplaces about how we impact our environment, we can make a difference. The ocean needs your voice, because without you, there is none. We want to help you to speak-up for the ocean and understand the importance of living at one with our environment.
We empower young people because we recognize the importance of their voice. If kids across the world unite for our environment, we will see change across all business. We give tools to educators, schools, and families. Our Ocean and You recognizes the power within everyone to inspire change in our world. Thanks for your time and interest, we want to hear your stories. Together we hold the power to change our future by raising our voices for our environment. Please share and tag #OurOceanAndYou. If you would like to bring our work to your community, help us amplify our message, or dive with us, contact us today.
visionary Annie Crawley
Annie Crawley has worked around the world with cameras in hand, mostly below the surface of the sea. Annie’s work has been published and broadcast world-wide. Born and raised in Chicago, she now lives in the Pacific Northwest in Edmonds, WA, north of Seattle. She works as a filmmaker, keynote speaker, photographer, writer, as well as Master Scuba Diving Instructor. She has created a series of illustrated books and programs to entertain, educate and awe children and adults about life within our ocean. The Our Ocean And You campaign launched to create a community who understand the importance of the ocean in our daily lives. Her work has reached hundreds of thousands of students during the past 20 years. She travels with a Dive Team comprised of kids, teens and young adults who explore the sea by free-diving and scuba diving. As a master communicator she runs programs teaching the art of photography, video, and storytelling. She graduated from the University of Washington Communication Leadership Program with a Master of Communications, was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2010, and is a member of the Climate Leadership Reality Corps. Annie’s mission in life is to help others understand their interconnection with our environment and wants everyone to have a conversation about the ocean every single day. The Our Ocean And You Campaign gives people the tools and resources to bring the ocean to a larger audience. Annie wants everyone to join the Our Ocean And You team and speak up for the ocean. What are you waiting for? Connect with us today!
Our Ocean And You In The News
My Edmonds News My Underwater Backyard Column
“Without you, our ocean has no voice.” Read Elise Foot Puchalski’s story about symbiosis in Edmonds Underwater Park.
WELCOME Magazine
Read about Ocean Annie creating voices for blue spaces. Article by Ellen Hiatt.
Scuba Diving Magazine
Read the story on Bruce Higgins and Edmonds Underwater Park with photos from Annie Crawley and her Dive Team.
My Edmonds News
Ocean Annie is speaking to the Edmonds School District to bring ocean awareness to the community and celebrate Earth Day 2021
The Original Loretta Brown Show
Watch Annie and Loretta’s discussion about life, love, and the ocean.
Scuba Diving Magazine
Read the latest piece on Self-Reliant Diver on Annie’s training column.
The Bridge Podcast
Annie joins John & BeiBei to discuss life beneath the surface, and how to contribute to a healthy aqua environment.
Deeper Dive Podcast
Annie discusses diving with humpback whales in Tonga and the “Mother of Sharks” on keeping it simple underwater.
Our Ocean Partners
Underwater Sports understands the importance of protecting the marine environment and have been helping divers throughout our region for more than 50 years. They have introduced thousands of people to local diving in the Puget Sound and around the world. Underwater Sports values the next generation of dive leaders and partnered with us to bring our campaigns into our local schools.
Light and Motion: Light and Motion revolutionized portable lights for cinema, photography, underwater, drone, bike and adventure. Many of the images captured on this site were taken with constant lighting using Sola Dive lights. They’ve partnered with us to ensure Our Ocean messages are the best they can be and have a strong doctrine of conservation.
DUI-Diving Unlimited International: DUI Diving Unlimited International creates top of the line dry suits, gloves, hoods, undergarments and heated undergarments to keep scuba divers and snorkelers warm in temperate and cold water locations around the world. We value their support of our Dive Team.
Zeagle: Zeagle Systems makes durable and trustworthy dive equipment. Their BCDs provide maximum lift for PNW dry suit divers. They are streamlined, fit many body shapes and sizes because of their adjustable grommets, and harness system. They’ve been our partner since we started our Dive Team.
Atomic Aquatics: Our team learns to dive using Atomic Aquatics B2 regulators. Atomic Aquatics designed and engineered their regulators to be the best breathing devices on the planet. Teaching a variety of ages and sizes, we teach our students on the brands we choose to dive.
Fourth Element: We love our Fourth Element Arctic underwear we use to keep warm here in the PNW. They have an incredible line of products including bathing suits, wetsuits, undergarments and dry suits that perform in the world’s most extreme environments. They also strive to minimize their impact on our ocean planet with their ocean positive approach to business. They work to get ghost nets and derelict fishing gear out of the ocean and have an entire line of OceanPositive gear created to help the sea.
Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo: Backscatter dives, shoots, services and creates tutorials on all the equipment they create. They’ve become a partner for our Dive Team because they believe in the power of the next generation of underwater storytellers. They help our Dive Team speak-up for our Planet Ocean.
Port of Edmonds Our community cares about the health of our ocean. Our Ocean And You works with our Dive Team to raise public awareness about ocean pollution together with the Port of Edmonds. The Dive Team runs clean-ups at the port to raise awareness about the impacts people have on the Puget Sound area of the Salish Sea.
Dive Xtras — Dive Xtras, Inc. is the manufacturer of the highest performance diver propulsion vehicles in the world. Concentrating on lightweight, powerful diving scooters ensures that our products offer the highest performance for more fun than you can cope with while diving. After learning about our Refuse Single Use Plastic 30 Day challenge, their company removed all single use plastic packaging from their products.
University of Washington Communication Leadership Program — . Our Ocean And You gained strength and recognition partnering with their program.
Perry Norton — A talented voice over artist, Perry Norton, is the incredible voice of the ocean in our production and the mother humpback whale in A Mother’s Tale, Humpback Whales of Tonga. She’s a force of nature and understands nature’s rule. We are proud to partner with Perry Norton on our films.
Patricia Newman — Patricia Newman and Annie Crawley have partnered on three books to raise awareness about people working together for our environment. Planet Ocean, Why We All Need A Healthy Ocean, releases in March 2021. Together they bring non-fiction, science, and storytelling into the hearts and minds of students around the world.
YOU — We are always looking for strategic partners to bring these vital ocean messages to a variety of communities. Contact us today if you are interested in joining and of our projects and supporting our mission to educate the world about the ocean. If you are a community business we would love to work with you. If you are an individual that wants to donate to help spread our messages, we would love to talk to you about some of our needs. If you are a company that understands the importance of the health of our ocean and supporting the next generation of ocean leaders, let’s talk about how we can amplify our messages.
