Hello, my name is Nichole Rutherford and I am the OceanRunner! Though I had never run more than 13.1 miles at once before this challenge, I decided to jump in with both feet and sign up for the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World; a 48.6-mile race, held over 4 days in January 2017. As a novice runner, I knew I had my work cut out for me! Yeah, I cannot tell you how many times I thought “Dopey” was an understatement!

I knew that if I was going to put my body and mind through months of grueling training, I wanted to do it for a greater purpose than the pure satisfaction of completing my running goal. Being a seacoast resident all my life, and working at the Seacoast Science Center for the past 9 years, my choice was clear… I decided my cause would be to promote ocean health.

As I started running along the Seacoast, I became more curious about the ocean. I wondered, what lives in the tide pools? Why does the salt marsh smell so funky? How do sea stars actually eat? I also became more concerned about the plight of the ocean. I was curious if sea level rise is occurring in the Seacoast? Why are whale entanglements on the rise? What can we reduce seal and sea turtle deaths, often caused by ingested garbage? If I had these questions, I thought others might too. That is when #oceanrunnernh and the Healthy Ocean or Bust movement was born.

With the help of my colleagues at SSC as my marine environmental knowledge resource, I decided to host a video blog to answers some of these questions and inform people why the ocean matters. In the blog, we offer simple ways everyone can help make a difference in reducing pollution, marine debris, marine mammal entanglement, and more.

Our Healthy Ocean or Bust Movement has sparked a new partnership between the Seacoast Science Center and the University of New Hampshire (UNH). A team of Entrepreneurial Studies students are working with the Center to develop a new community action ocean conversation program they hope to launch in 2017.The program will teach students how our actions on land impact ocean health and inspire them to design, organize, and promote awareness or fundraising campaigns to help support the Healthy Ocean or Bust movement.

The Healthy Ocean or Bust Movement was started with a small idea to bring awareness of how critically important ocean health is to all life on earth. Imagine the impact if people worked together to help raise awareness in the community?

This is where you come in. The Seacoast Science Center needs just $1,500 to launch the new program and I am personally asking to you to help make it happen. It will make all the pain and suffering of 48.6 miles so well worth it!  Please consider making a donation to support this program and help the Seacoast Science Center foster the ocean stewards of tomorrow.

#OceanRunnerNH

Gotta Run!

Support the Health Ocean or Bust Bandit Program

Healthy Ocean or Bust ‘Bandits’ program is a community action ocean conservation program, that will inspire children to design, organize and promote mini-campaigns to educate and motivate citizens to think Blue (or green)!
 

Center staff will help kids learn about why a healthy ocean is important, the challenges it faces, and then guide them through the creative process of designing ocean conservation awareness campaigns to help them achieve their motivational goals.

Here are ways our ocean conservation students might motivate citizens to think BLUE:

• Create fun, informational videos, songs, or Public Service Announcements

• Organize beach cleanups

• Create poster awareness campaigns, around topics such as marine debris, or single-use plastics

• Conduct school waste audits or recycling programs

• Create adopt-a-waterway campaign

• Plan festivals or school-wide activities focused around the ocean

• Launch a stormwater drains awareness program

• Retrofit water fountains with water bottle refill systems

• And many, many other ways!