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Talking to our guest Ken Mankoff made us think about the planet and specifically about our oceans. And since the oil gush in the Gulf is already devastating coastal and sea life, we wanted to give you some tips that you can do to help or reduce the harm that humans cause.

June 8th was World Oceans Day, but even if you didn’t participate, there’s plenty you can do to show your appreciation for the oceans of Earth.

1. Choose sustainable seafood. 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are fished to capacity or overfished. And 30 million tons of fish, sea turtles, sharks, and seabirds die each year as “bycatch”—animals caught accidentally and discarded, dead or dying. Choosing seafood from fishers who use better practices can save animal lives. The good folks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium have compiled a free guide called Seafood Watch with seafood recommendations, restaurants and recipes.

2. Recycle more and waste less. There’s literally an island of trash Great Pacific Garbage Patch that some estimate to be the size of Texas floating between Asia and North America, and it isn’t getting any smaller. Being diligent about disposing of your waste properly means it won’t end up in the ocean.

3. Cut down or eliminate the use of pesticides and fertilizers in your lawn or garden. Those chemicals seep into the soil and can eventually reach the ocean. There are around 150 ‘dead zones’ where low oxygen inhibits or kills off sea life in our oceans and many of them were caused by excessive fertilizer runoff into rivers and streams. Cutting back on harsh chemicals isn’t just good for the ocean, it’s good for you.

4. Cut down on fuel consumption. Do you and your neighbor both have to use your gas grills when you could just get together and share? Could you walk to the convenience store instead of driving? Could you hitch a ride with friends instead of meeting them at the bar? If you can cut down, you should. Offshore drilling for oil continues to devastate the environment. If you can cut down on fuel consumption it means less profit for the oil companies who are causing all this damage.

5. Tell the government how you feel. Of course the White House has a good handle on the national sentiment towards the BP oil gush, but until we explicitly say what we think and how we’d like our government to respond, we’re just wasting our breath. We are in the middle of an environmental crisis, and we need all hands on deck to solve this problem. Write your local government, your state government, and of course the federal government.

Some of these tips are from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.