Honourable senators, Saturday is World Oceans Day.

We human beings are closely tied to our oceans. Our modern‑day troubadours sing about them: The Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden,” Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” Raffi’s “Baby Beluga,” the viral hit “Baby Shark,” Stan Rogers’ “Barrett’s Privateers” and Rum Ragged’s “The Wave That Hit St. Bride’s.”

Our oceans cover 70% of our planet, and they are the Earth’s lungs, providing 70% of the oxygen we breathe. Oceans are the most important global storage depot of carbon on Earth, soaking up more carbon than all the world’s rainforests combined. The ocean is one of the main repositories of the world’s biodiversity.

Nova Scotia’s licence plates declare that we are Canada’s ocean playground, and that we are.

Oceans are places where we relax and have fun. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Pomquet Beach with my grandkids, Sophie, Violetta and Sierra, who frolicked in the chilly waters and built their sandcastles.

Oceans are places to harvest food, medicines and preserve cultural practices. A couple of years ago, I told you about lobster fishing in the Northumberland Strait off of Arisaig with the MacInnis family. Lobster is Canada’s most valuable fishery, with exports exceeding $3.2 billion in 2021. Last winter, I snowshoed out onto Antigonish Harbour to talk with the Mi’kmaq women and men who were spearing eels according to their age-old traditions.

Oceans are also places of sport and, at times, intense competition. People from my area love to head to the rugged Eastern Shore to surf the high ocean swells. Last weekend, SailGP made its Canada debut in Halifax with 10 teams of athletes from across the globe going head to head at high speeds in their F50 catamarans.

These same high ocean winds are important to our energy future, as we heard from Senator Petten yesterday. Senator Quinn, former chief executive officer of the Saint John Port Authority, could tell us about the importance of our oceans to international trade. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, predicts that the global ocean economy will reach $4 trillion by 2030.

In closing, colleagues, oceans are also places of liberation from tyranny and places of remembrance. Last September, I visited Normandy’s D-Day beaches and Canada’s Juno Beach Centre. Tomorrow, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, French citizens will gather on those beaches with visitors from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be there with them.

Honourable colleagues, let us join in spirit with those gathered oceanside to remember the horrors and the heroes.

Thank you.