Ester Casado

Executive Assistant

Oceana Staff

I didn’t grow up on the coast, I’m not interested in water sports and I’ve never seen “Free Willy.” In fact, I never even learned how to swim in the sea (if you can call swimming the spasmodic movements I make in the water), but I’m a conscientious person and I especially value that people like us will dedicate our lives to the defense of our main resource.

Even in an inland city, the ocean is still all around us, regardless of whether we’re aware of it or not: fish and seafood, bathroom merchandise, cosmetics, medicines—we even forget where salt comes from (without which we could not have developed our current way of life). Our shopping basket is not unaffected by what is happening in the underwater world.

“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

Until a few years ago, I had not had an opportunity to pay attention to the nature that surrounds and supports us. What began as concern about our consumption habits later became worry about the systematic devouring of our resources. And the more I learn about the wonders all around us, the greater is my certainty that the ocean in the most important piece of the big puzzle that our planet represents.

The sea is our guarantee for the future, and everyone needs to understand how important it is. That is why working in defense of our oceans on behalf of thousands of people is a challenge, one of the most special opportunities life has given to me.