Which one of the following is the theme of the World Ocean Day, 2021?

Correct — B, The Ocean : Life and Livelihoods. That was the United Nations theme for World Oceans Day on 8 June 2021, chosen to mark the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which runs from 2021 to 2030. The wording points at the two things the observance is meant to hold together — the ocean as a living system and the hundreds of millions of people whose work depends on it. What makes this item unusually fair is that the other three options are not invented; each was the theme of another year.

• (a)Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean — The theme of the previous year, 2020, when the observance was built around new technology and research for ocean sustainability.
• (c)Gender and Oceans — The theme of 2019, which took up the position of women in fisheries, marine science and maritime work.
• (d)Clean Our Oceans — A plausible slogan of the kind used in marine litter campaigns, but not the United Nations theme for 2021.

World Oceans Day has been observed on 8 June since the United Nations General Assembly formally designated it in 2008, the proposal having come from Canada at the Earth Summit of 1992. Each year carries a theme, and from 2021 the observance has been tied to the Ocean Decade, a coordinated push to generate the science needed to manage fisheries, pollution, carbon uptake and coastal risk.

Theme questions are worth preparing as a short list rather than one entry, because an examiner who asks for one year's theme usually builds the option set out of neighbouring years — which is precisely what happened here. It also helps to keep the June observances apart: World Environment Day falls on 5 June and World Oceans Day on 8 June, and both appear in this paper.

• World Oceans Day is observed on 8 June and was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008.
• The 2021 theme was 'The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods'.
• The 2020 theme was 'Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean' and the 2019 theme was 'Gender and Oceans'.
• The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development began in 2021 and runs to 2030.
• Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water, is the goal the observance is tied to.

• Choosing a theme from an adjacent year, since the option set is built from them.
• Mixing up World Environment Day on 5 June with World Oceans Day on 8 June.

A theme-recall item whose distractors are themselves genuine themes from other years.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  World Oceans Day is observed on which date?

  • (a)5 June
  • (b)8 June
  • (c)22 April
  • (d)22 May

  Answer(b) 8 June — World Environment Day is on 5 June and Earth Day on 22 April.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Sustainable Development Goal deals with life below water?

  • (a)Goal 13
  • (b)Goal 14
  • (c)Goal 15
  • (d)Goal 6

  Answer(b) Goal 14 — Goal 13 is Climate Action and Goal 15 is Life on Land.