Are you ocean literate? New resources to raise awareness of links between ocean and human health

Did you know that the ocean provides half of the oxygen we breathe - enough for every second breath we take? Or that the majority of marine litter is indestructible plastic which lasts virtually forever? Many European citizens are not aware of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean. In other words, many of us lack a sense of “Ocean Literacy”.

If you want to increase your Ocean Literacy, the newly launched Sea Change website (www.seachangeproject.eu) is a good place to start. Sea Change is an EU Horizon 2020-funded project which aims to raise European citizens’ awareness of the intrinsic links between ocean and human health, and to empower us, as Ocean Literate citizens, to take direct and sustainable action towards a healthy ocean and seas, healthy communities and ultimately a healthy planet.

The Sea Change partnership are already hard at work designing Ocean Literacy related activities and materials focused on education, community, and governance actors, and directly targeted at citizens.

The project website will be the central information hub for the project and is the place to go to stay informed about and get involved in Sea Change activities that will be taking place across Europe, including public consultations, competitions, citizen science projects, talks, training opportunities and much more. The website will also act as a repository for key outputs, materials, tools and resources that will be developed during the project.

The first of these outputs is a short video introducing the concept of Ocean Literacy and outlining the medical, economic, social, and environmental importance of the sea to Europe and indeed to the rest of the world. The video highlights the importance of protecting the ocean by making choices that are more “ocean-friendly”. An accompanying booklet has also been produced and will also shortly be available on the Sea Change website. You can watch the “Sea Change: Increasing Ocean Literacy” video and subscribe to the Sea Change Vimeo channel at www.vimeo.com/seachangeproject.

“I am really pleased and excited to announce the launch of the Sea Change website and our first video on Ocean Literacy,” said Jon Parr, Sea Change Coordinator, “The website will grow over the lifetime of the project and we hope that the planned collection of free, publicly available Sea Change materials will be of tremendous value to educators, Ocean Literacy advocates and anyone interested in learning about and communicating the links between the ocean and human health.”

If you want to learn more about what you can do to protect the health of our seas and ocean, have any questions about Ocean Literacy, or want to find out how to get involved in Sea Change’s activities, you can get in touch by following Sea Change on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SeaChange_EU and liking the project on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeaChangeProjectEU.

If you would like to know more about the Sea Change project or would like to receive regular updates on its progress, please contact its Communication Officer, Tanja Calis (email: [e-mail] or tel: [phone]). The Sea Change project factsheet is available to download here: http://seachangeproject.eu/images/SEACHANGE/Media_Centre/SEACHANGE_Factsheet_web.pdf

Notes for Editors

The Sea Change project is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement n° 652644. The Marine Biological Association, UK (MBA) is coordinating the project. AquaTT is the project dissemination partner.

Jon Parr, Sea Change coordinator, is Deputy Director at the MBA.

The “Sea Change: Increasing Ocean Literacy” video was developed by the European Marine Board and CoExploration Limited and was produced by Marker Wizards Ltd.

For press queries, please contact the project Communications Officer:
Tanja Calis, AquaTT (email: [e-mail] Tel: [phone])

Keywords

Ocean Literacy

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom, United States