What is “ocean literacy”?Ocean literacy is a recent term in the European context. The diversity of languages in Europe brings a first light on what we mean by (ocean) literacy. Depending on languages, it is translated with words that are no direct equivalent and that might refer to different roots, concepts and issues (In German, for example, ocean literacy could be translated as Meereskompetenz or ocean competence from the Latin competere “comply”). In some languages, there is no specific word for literacy, while there are words defining its opposite (the term illetré for example, in French). Despite the conceptual linguistic differences, most of these terms refer to some sort of environmental education or awareness raising with a marine dimension. In the U.S. context, it was first defined as “an understanding of the ocean’s influence on you—and your influence on the ocean”5. Ocean literacy was defined primarily in an educational context as the understanding of the ocean’s influence on the individual,

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NThere are many concerns about the current state of European seas and environmental problems resulting from traditional (e.g. fishing, shipping, waste discharges…) and emerging (e.g. aquaculture, recreation, renewable energy production, seabed mining….) human activities. And there are questions on how the status of marine ecosystems might evolve in the future in relation to climate change and to the continued the demand for marine resources resulting from proactive policies aimed at promoting the development of blue growth sectors. Either driven by scientific evidences on the state of the seas and/or of increasing pressures on marine ecosystems, or by public concern on the oceans’ health (in particular in terms of pollution, overfishing and ocean acidification1), policy makers have taken actions at different levels for addressing the problems caused by individual sectors (addressing overfishing and eutrophication of agriculture origin via specific measures of the EU Common Fishery Policy or EU Common Agriculture Policy) or protecting marine biodiversity (Natura 2000 sites). At the European Union (EU) level, the Marine Framework Strategy Directive adopted in 20082 provides today the umbrella policy for restoring the ecological status and the functioning of marine ecosystems. In addition to the top-down legislation approach where policies drive change in the practices of individual sectors and in the implementation of conservation management measures, increasing attention is given to soft approaches aimed at enhancing knowledge on the challenges of the marine ecosystems3. Many information, communication, awareness building and training initiatives are implemented by government bodies, economic sectors’ associations and environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) at different (from local to European) scales. In parallel, efforts are made to adapt formal and informal education to children and students so marine (and more generally environmental) concerns find their due place in education programs and activities. More recently, enhancing “literacy on the ocean” (or ocean literacy) has emerged as a concept linked to, and vehicle to, improving knowledge on marine-related human behavior. This concept, that matured in the US in the last two decades4, has found its way to European marine policy via research, in particular building on: (i) transatlantic political initiatives between the US, Canada and the EU that gives room to “strengthening ties” in the field of ocean literacy, sharing the US experience in this domain and giving it its European; and (ii) a call for proposals on “Blue growth: unlocking the potential of seas and oceans” under the EU Horizon 2020 research programme for funding projects on “Ocean literacy - engaging with society – social innovation”. Under this call, the ResponSEAble project (protecting the ocean: our collective responsibility, our common interest) has been funded with the aim of:

“Supporting the emergence of an effective and dynamic European ocean knowledge system that contributes to raising awareness on everybody’s (individual and collective, direct and indirect) responsibility and interest in a healthy and sustainable ocean”

The present note summarises a series of issues and questions that are at central to the focus and activities of the EU-funded ResponSEAble project.

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Concept note

and the individuals influence on the ocean. While this definition describes a generally applicable and desirable individual condition for global improvements in the marine environment, current social and economic developments call for an expansion of the approaches and means to build ocean literacy. In the context of ResponSEAble, an ocean literate person is aware of the importance of the ocean; understands the ocean’s influence on humans, and the influence of humans on the ocean (as an individual, professional and social beings); knows what to do to protect the ocean, and to seize opportunities the ocean offers (act responsibly) and, is able to communicate responsibilities for the ocean to others. Therefore, ResponSEAble’s concept of ocean literacy builds on three main pillars: what knowledge do people need to have, who needs to know and how this knowledge should be communicated.

Knowledge: what do we need to know?Which knowledge should ocean literacy build on? The state of the ocean, and how important it is to protect it (for ecosystems, for society, for individuals…), is central to the messages carried out by ocean literacy initiatives. Attention is also given to human activities (whether specific sectors broadly defined such as the fisheries sector or individual actions such as waste disposal) that are at the origin of the pressures imposed on marine ecosystems The diffuse nature of pressures and the complexity of the human-nature relationship. While in the past, individual persons’ decision would often impact natural resources in the area where they were living and potentially on their neighbors or on inhabitants from the same village, the situation has drastically changed today: our daily actions lead to multiple pressures on marine ecosystems, many of which being diffused and indirect with spatial and temporal disconnection between the original action and its impacts. Making explicit the causal relationships between people’s acts and the state of our seas is then a challenging task.A central principle of ResponSEAble is that more attention needs to be given to knowledge on the general drivers for a wide range of human activities such as consumption patterns, demographic increases, and economic conditions. The same is true for small-scale links of the value chain in the various economic sectors (e.g. the understanding of the links between fishing, fish-processing, retailers and final consumers of fish products). Knowing how to “do better” and what is in the hands of people for reducing pressures on marine ecosystems and for better enjoying amenities linked to the sea, is rarely central to the knowledge mobilized in ocean literacy initiatives. When this is addressed, the focus is often on best practices and regulations for the sectors described (e.g. using different net for fishing or electric boats for marine protected areas). If ocean literacy aims at increasing knowledge so people are in a position to make informed and responsible decisions regarding the ocean and its resources, it is essential to include knowledge on the drivers of (individual and collective) decisions for those involved in marine-related values chains, on the alternatives for “doing differently”, and on the likely effects of “doing differently” for those acting and for those benefiting (the marine ecosystems itself and all individuals and sectors benefiting from the services healthy marine ecosystems provide). Who should be involved in producing knowledge? Scientists are often seen as the primary producers of sound and robust knowledge, with scientific knowledge being shared via publications, the contribution of scientists to education activities, the development of dissemination tools for the wider public, etc. Ecologists and marine biologists have for many years contributed to the development of knowledge for ocean literacy – and their knowledge is essential to the understanding of the state of the ocean, of the pressures and of environmental impacts. However, with the importance given to knowledge on good practices of a wide range of economic operators, their drivers and conditions for “changing behavior”, and their (environmental, social and economic) effects, it is important to feed ocean literacy initiatives with (new) knowledge produced by socio-ecological scientists, social scientists (sociologist, psychologists), economists or knowledge scientists.

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Knowledge Channels Actors

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Knowledge providers are clearly not the sole providers of knowledge. Knowledge is also produced by a wide range of professionals: fishermen, ship’s captains, environmental Non-Governmental Organizations, etc. Thanks to the development of social media and information technologies, individuals who enjoy, see, monitor, and report their experiences are also increasingly emerging as knowledge providers (citizen science). Ocean literacy needs to build on a wide spectrum of knowledge types, building adequate mechanisms for ensuring the soundness and robustness of the knowledge that is shared and communicated. The question is who produces knowledge. If fishermen and environmentalists cooperate in the production of knowledge, chances for behavior changes are higher..

Actors: Who needs to have the knowledge? As indicated above, there is much attention given to children and to the youth as priority target group in ocean literacy initiatives. Enhancing ocean literacy for this group is likely to contribute to change in behavior once children become adults in 10 to 15 years. However, there is clearly a much wider range of potential “target groups” that could become “ocean literate”:

Ƹ ResponSEAble proposes analyzing the actors of value chains: � Professionals of the sectors which activities are directly putting pressures on the state of the ocean: such as fishermen, farmers, shipowners, hotel owners, tourist operators, with assumption that if they become “ocean literate”, they will “know more”, “care more”, or “be capable of acting responsibly”;

� Economic operators (producers) of these sectors (e.g. companies producing fishing nets or boats that are better performing from an environmental point of view, or alternatives to microbeads in cosmetics) that develop technologies and solutions that help reducing pressures on marine ecosystems

Ƹ Policy makers, who take the lead in developing new regulation and ensure current regulation is adequately implemented;

Ƹ Society at large, including consumers which consumption choices have many direct and indirect connections to the seas, or voters which can influence political groups in giving due attention to marine issues.

Channels: how the knowledge is communicated?How to trustworthy share knowledge and communicate the most relevant information to diverse groups, and by whom, are matters of utmost importance in the field of ocean literacy. Dissemination of knowledge and information about the ocean can occur at institutional settings, such as school, but also via informal channels, such as meetings, television or social media, just to name a few. Today, the new communication and information technologies enable not only effective and efficient top-down transmission of knowledge, but also bottom-up transfer of information or peer education on ocean related issues. It also creates the conditions for self-learning and mutual-learning. The function of the sharing knowledge is then strengthened in the area of cultural cohesion. It is also necessary to go beyond the traditional vision of learning and information sharing (in which the recipients of knowledge are seen as more or less passive in the communication process), to a more dynamic and systemic view of knowledge sharing in which recipients are active, potential contributors of knowledge, and providing constant feedback via the diverse channels established with them. At school, children and young people can be guided by their educators to improve their knowledge about the ocean, and take action regarding matters in which they might have some degree of control (beach clean-ups, for instance). On the other hand, children can also bring to school their own concerns about the ocean, such as marine litter at the beach, therefore promoting discussion or new peer projects about matters that are close to their own heart. As children become teenagers and as teenagers become young adults, the knowledge shared at education institutions about the ocean becomes more specialized and less broad in terms of reaching a wide audience.The diversity of targets of initiatives and actions, of actors of literacy and of media/tools available, are in line with the diversity of target groups that can become “ocean literate”. Actors supporting ocean literacy initiatives include “training” specialists for different marine or non-marine sectors (involved in marine-related value chains), professional associations, environmental NGOs, NGOs or media targeting consumers or specific parts of society (youth, retired people, etc.), etc.

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Also, with the increasing number of information sources, the objective of ocean literacy need to shift from enhancing our understanding of the human-ocean relation to enhancing our capacity to screen, select and combine the right available information to self-develop robust knowledge on the human-ocean relationship;

From raising awareness to behavior change Even if we target the right people with the right message in a most effective way, we may not be able to change the behavior of the individuals, as there are multiple reasons other than « knowledge » and literacy that influence individual and collective behavior explained by for example by the theory of dissonance - a contradiction between thoughts, the inner conflict). Knowledge is a precondition but not sufficient for behaviour change.The barriers to effective ocean literacy can be internal (lack of knowledge, cognitive dissonance, habits, lifestyle, identify issues), or external (infrastructure, subsidies, externalisation, market concentration) Solutions can tackle behaviour (introduction of new social norms, marketing, critical mass, education/information, role models behaviour); or change in the context - such as enhancing infrastructure/supply, political and economic claims. There is also an issue of knowledge co-creation: if fishermen and environmentalists cooperate in producing knowledge it has better chances for behaviour change. Assessing the effectiveness of ocean literacy, comparing before and after or with and without, remains challenging. More work is required on methodology and protocols for assessing how ocean literacy might change perception and understanding, as preconditions for further change in behavior. If we believe ocean literacy is a pre-condition for all to better act in the future, in particular children, it needs to be regularly adapted in both its content and in the mechanisms (technology and emotional factors) developed for continuously enhancing knowledge: using Living labs, children making movies among the others, which helps to make a powerful emotional connection to the issue and take actions.

In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.» (Baba Dioum, 1968.)

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1 Gelcich, S., P. Buckley, J. K. Pinnegar, J. Chilvers, I. Lorenzoni, G. Terry, M. Guerrero, J. C. Castilla, A. Valdebenito, C. M. Duarte, 2014. Public awareness, concerns, and priorities about anthropogenic impacts on marine environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111: 15042-15047.

2 European Commission, 2008. Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive). Official Journal of the European Union, L164: 19-40.

3 Borja, A., 2014. Grand Challenges in Marine Ecosystems Ecology. Frontiers in Marine Science, 1: 1-6 DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2014.00001

4 Anonymous, 2013. Ocean Literacy. The Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts of Ocean Sciences for Learners of All Ages. NOAA: 13 pp.

5 West, R.D., 2004. Ocean literacy is a key to preserving our oceans and coasts. Marine Technology Society Journal, 38 (4): 68–69.R

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020-BG-2014-1) under grant agreement No. 652643. This publication/multimedia product/presentation reflects the views of the author, and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use which might be made of the information contained therein.The note builds on the ideas and contributions from different partners of the project and is a living document as the project progresses.

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