The diversity of outputs from Sea Change is testament to the greatest collaborative effort that has ever been undertaken to advance Ocean Literacy anywhere in the world.
Sea Change has used a collective approach to address the challenge of improving Ocean Literacy across Europe, and to evaluate the effectiveness this using a tailored Collective Impact Assessment Framework. This evaluation focused on the three focus areas of: Education, Marine Governance, and Public Engagement.
Education
Successful implementation of the collective approach to empower educators with insights, training, assets and solutions, and set the wheels in motion for Ocean Literacy to be integrated into European school curricula and marine educational policy. Consultations held across Europe provide unique country-specific insights into barriers and solutions to teaching teenagers about the Ocean. A Sea Change Co-Creation Toolkit has empowered the artnership and transformed them into a powerful collaborative network of behavioural change agents. Innovative educational tools have been created and tested , including online courses, iBooks, educational games and apps. The establishment of EMSEA as a legal entity will ensure that European educators will continue to have a forum to share and collaborate on their endeavours.
Marine Governance
In the policy context, it is anticipated that creating a more Ocean Literate society in Europe will result in increased interest in, understanding of, and engagement with marine policy. Sea Change conducted the first evaluation of Ocean Literacy content in European Marine Policy and presented recommendations to increase this content. Partners held dialogues with policy actors which revealed their level of awareness of popular marine issues, such as marine litter, and investigated their views on solutions to these problems. The reports produced provide a valuable analysis of the science-policy interface mechanisms of global and regional agreements pertaining to fisheries, pollution, biodiversity and climate change in the ocean, and also assesses their strengths and weaknesses. Consultations with 30 stakeholders contributed to the further development of the initial reports to produce a roadmap for the science-society-marine policy interface as a guide for policymakers for future policy developments.
Public Engagement
Over 200 public events and conferences around Europe. Building on a baseline review of the ways to achieve societal change, a co-creation toolkit using Social Innovation Participation and Process (SIPPs) concepts and activities formed the basis for a series of innovative outreach and engagement events by partners and third parties. Events including online seminars reached a total audience figure of over 165,000. Approaches were tested for their effectiveness offering a unique and valuable insight into the effectiveness of innovative social engagement and marketing methods.
Resources such as the Ocean Edge Directory, an online guide for marine best practise and animations, were accessed by some 360 visitors per month and the Web site received 100,000 visits, recording over 500 resource downloads. The networks built over the duration of the project grew from 873 organisations (first 18 months) to 1,534 (30 months). Resources created included 9 videos and animations which received over 130,000 plays. 12 infographics, 7 posters and factsheets had over 500 downloads. Cumulatively, project press releases were read by 35,697 people over the project duration The ‘Our the project Ocean, Our Health’ campaign, along with a more recent ‘Love the Ocean’ public awareness campaign, reached over 400,000 people via social media (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Instagram and Thunderclap).
