World Aquatic Animal Day

Join the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and the Animal Law Clinic at the Center for Animal Law Studies annually on April 3 to celebrate World Aquatic Animal Day!

 

The theme for 2022 was Disentangling the Sustainability Myth in Fishing and Aquaculture

On April 3, 2022, we hosted our third annual World Aquatic Animal Day to speak up for aquatic animals around the globe! Learn more about this year’s theme in our blogs:

Webinar

Our free, virtual webinar featured leading experts on aquatic animal law. It is now available on our Youtube channel under the playlist World Aquatic Animal Day 2022.  Continuing legal education credit information is shown in the description for each video on YouTube. The complete schedule and panelist details are below. 

Lunch & Action

Our community partners Veggies Do It Better and Animal Rights Collective Portland (ARCPDX) co-hosted a special #LunchBreakLIVE on UnchainedTV News Network in honor of World Aquatic Animal Day. Chelsea V Davis interviewed MacKenzie DeVito, CEO of No Bones Beach Club, as Mackenzie made her Coastal Inspired Po Boy with crispy fried artichokes, cabbage, tomatoes, pickles, onion, and chipotle tartar sauce and talked about her plant-based seafood line and how she was able to make the switch from restaurant owner to a wholesale plant-based food supplier. Chelsea also shared information about the 30x30 campaign and offered ways we can encourage our governments worldwide to protect our oceans. Everyone who attended and commented on the live stream was entered to win an official World Aquatic Animal Day mason jar from The Roaring Vegans, and No Bones Beach Club merchandise. 

Evening Action Hour

After the webinar has concluded, we hosted an Action Hour on campus from 4-5pm Pacific, USA. This event was open to the public and provided the opportunity to hear from local community members about plant-based procurement, network with like-minded advocates, and enjoy some free, delicious vegan seafood. Katie Cantrell from the Better Food Foundation, Elle Neal from Multnomah County, and Lewis & Clark animal law students shared information about advocating for plant-based food access in institutional settings. A special thank you to the Animal Legal Defense Fund for providing a grant to the Lewis & Clark Law School Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter to support this event!

#worldaquaticanimalday

10 Ways to Get Involved

(Download poster; poster translations provided by Vegan Linguists)

Additional Resources

World Aquatic Animal Day 2021

World Aquatic Animal Day 2020

About World Aquatic Animal Day

World Aquatic Animal Day is an annual day dedicated to aquatic animals. The event—launched for the first time on April 3, 2020—is a project of the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and the Animal Law Clinic at the Center for Animal Law Studies. Each year, students take the lead at raising global awareness about these often forgotten nonhuman animals.

Aquatic animals play a critical role in our societies and ecosystems. They are important not only as a group, but also as valuable and exciting individuals with intrinsic worth. By “aquatic animals”, we mean not only fish, but also a myriad of other animals that live in water for most of their life: amphibians, marine mammals, crustaceans, reptiles, molluscs, aquatic birds, aquatic insects and even animals such as starfish and corals. Despite this, aquatic animals are widely used and abused around the world and they face a multitude of different threats.

There is an urgent need to give aquatic animals the proper consideration they deserve. Through law, policy, education, advocacy and good stewardship of the earth, our efforts to raise awareness of the plight of aquatic animals must rise to meet the immense challenges they now face. We must also consider our interactions with aquatic animals, our treatment of them, and the often-devastating impacts we are having on them and their habitats.

On April 3rd each year, please join us in celebrating these creatures and calling for action to protect aquatic animals through education, law, policy, outreach and other avenues. With a different focus each year, we will, together, highlight these issues and elevate their status.

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law attorneys and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter, with the most comprehensive animal law curriculum offered anywhere. In addition, CALS is the only program that offers an advanced legal degree in animal law, a Master of Studies in animal law for non-lawyers, and three specialty Animal Law Clinics, including the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative. CALS is a fully self-funded nonprofit organization operating under the Lewis & Clark College 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and is only able to provide these educational opportunities through donations and grants.