Various types of marine pollution are amongst the most relevant problems that we are facing today, whose irreversible consequences are already affecting global ecosystems’ balance and services. Ongoing initiatives advanced by both public and private institutions, as well as environmental NGOs, mainly consist of monitoring and awareness-raising campaigns and citizens' science processes to prevent or reduce littering and polluting activities, or -more limitedly- end-of-pipe waste collection infrastructures (e.g. the Blue Growth initiative of the European Commission). This special session welcomes cross-cutting thematic studies, case studies and fertile ideas for potential actions across the natural and the social disciplines, featuring engagement, education and social innovation examples that address the ocean as the core of all human health and thriving. We also welcome proposals of new tools and processes to promote a new narrative of emotional connection and literacy to face the pressing challenges for the resiliency of the ocean and all life that depends upon it. Most of the related research frames within a utilitarian conception of the economic importance of seas and oceans, including resource extraction for food or energy), logistic or leisure activities, and contemporary geopolitics and marine bordering. This managerial approach often characterises sea governance research and social-technical innovation against marine pollution, whose function is mainly interpreted as devoted to efficient planning and management. This is quite at odds with the evidence that the blueprint for future environmental governance requires a more inclusive and integrated way of thinking, drawing increasingly on not just economic values but also taking account of social and cultural values, whilst participatory modes of governance support effective management that are being increasingly adopted. Notably transformative and co-creative potential of the civic agency has been mobilised for both exploring and seeking potential solutions for tackling marine sustainability challenges. Nevertheless, the emotional, affective and care-based connection between society and the oceans has been scarcely investigated, despite the ocean’s role in sustaining life and cultural heritage lays at the core of the strategies and visions of the UN Decade for Ocean Sciences. The sea remains a largely unexplored space for turning knowledge into action via effective and wide social mobilisation. The ocean is the focus of this session: however, we encourage contributions related to freshwater environments of particular societal and economical relevance to explore potential ideas and share experiences (and challenges) in reconciling our society with the aquatic world.
Lead Organizer: Luisa Galgani, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany) and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic University (USA) (lgalgani@geomar.de)
Co-organizers:
Chiara Certomà, Department ESOMAS, University of Turin (Italy) (chiara.certoma@unito.it)
Ngozi Oguguah, Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research Lagos (Nigeria) (ngozimoguguah@yahoo.com)
Ana Fernandez Carrera, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemuende (Germany) (ana.carrera@io-warnemuende.de)
Allison Fong, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz Zentrum für Polar und-Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven (Germany) (allison.8.fong@gmail.com)
Presentations
08:30 AM
Exploring participatory knowledge creation practices for tightening society’s attachment to the Ocean (4613)
Tutorial/Invited: Tutorial
Primary Presenter: Chiara Certoma', University of Turin (chiara.certoma@unito.it)
On the assumption that wide awareness raising is crucial to produce virtuous changes in collective behaviors, and by sitting within the emerging Marine Social Science and Critical Ocean Geography perspective, I explore here the potentialities and limits of participatory marine knowledge creation and sharing practices (PaKCS). In natural science’s operationalization of citizen science, the possibility for participants to establish an attachment with the object of research is limited as citizens are often called to act as “sensors” for the accumulation of data. PaKCS are rather inspired by the Extreme Citizen Science approach and require a systematic knowledge production and interpretation work put forward by non-professionals, building upon the tacit knowledge of locals. The aim is to simultaneously deploy all existing communication, participation, and engagement techniques to overcome the obstacles posed by marine systems, such as their inaccessibility. Therefore, the presentation discusses how radically participatory practices mobilize social and biological scientific analytic methods for planning, realizing and communicating new perspectives and knowledge on the maritime environment. It engages with the co-design of the research process (self-managed by, with, and for citizens), including the definition of research priorities, knowledge gathering and sharing, data acquisition, elaboration, and discussion process, training and dissemination.
08:45 AM
How to get people unfamiliar with the ocean to care about its conservation (4991)
Tutorial/Invited: Invited
Primary Presenter: Cristina Romera-Castillo, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar-CSIC (crisrc@icm.csic.es)
Around a half of the global population lives in coastal areas. However, most citizens are not aware of the importance of the ocean in their lives at an economic, medical, social, political and environmental level. On the other side, most people are not conscious either of the impact that their actions have on the sea. Ocean health is being threatened as a result of anthropogenic activities such as greenhouse gases emissions causing global warming and acidification, plastic pollution or overfishing. In order to face all these challenges and protect the ocean we need the collaboration of the population together with stakeholders and policy makers. Ocean literacy is fundamental to raise awareness and reach that goal. People protect what they know and love. Therefore, improving public understanding of the importance of the ocean is key to face the issues affecting it. It is necessary to reach a critical mass to support policies to keep the ocean healthy. Reaching people through the emotions is a way to get the message across to the population. Here I will talk about my experience trying to reach people not familiar with the ocean through the writing of an outreach book. We will discuss different strategies to make people re-connect with the ocean.
09:00 AM
Using Narrative and Emotive Reasoning to Enhance Understanding of Ocean and Climate Science in the Undergraduate Classroom (4713)
Primary Presenter: Matthew Oliver, University of Delaware (moliver@udel.edu)
The Earth is undergoing climatic changes that cascade through to human experience. The challenge for educators is to communicate the interdependent scope, magnitude, and human relevance of these issues. Many educators favor addressing the technical challenges associated with accessing and visualizing empirical observations and data. We contend that with each dataset, there is an implicit, moralizing story that justifies its collection. By making these implicit stories explicit to students (i.e. the story challenge), they are more prepared to understand the meaning and applicability of the data collected. This is because students (and all humans) are emotive reasoners first, and technical reasoners second. This presentation introduces a pedagogy focusing on the interrelationship of the technical and story challenges when communicating ocean science topics. We use international, national, and local news media as a vehicle to show students how ocean science data are transformed into a story. We then ask students to understand these media stories through common cultural narratives to understand how the data are used to further the story. Students then evaluate the degree to which the data support the story. The theoretical and practical aspects of an active learning pedagogy tested in the undergraduate classroom will be discussed. We will discuss the effect of explicitly including different cultural stories using treatment and control classes at both the University of Delaware and Colgate University.
09:15 AM
Virtual Coastal Watershed Education and Training Tools (7265)
Primary Presenter: Jamie Steichen, Texas A&M University at Galveston (jamie.steichen@tamu.edu)
Virtual Watershed Education and Training (V-WET) is a collaborative project focused on increasing student engagement in local environmental and STEM careers, using 360 virtual Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEEs). The goal of V-WET is to provide virtual field trip options to schools that are not able to conduct in-person trips to local habitats and scientific facilities. In this project we have created a series of three 360 virtual MWEE tour experiences that allow students to virtually visit NOAA and Texas A&M University at Galveston laboratories and local bay habitats. Tours include a 1) Phytoplankton tour, 2) Coastal fisheries tour and 3) Shark Biology tour. Project based learning activities and stewardship action items are incorporated into each virtual tour to increase engagement and stewardship of the Galveston Bay Watershed and the Gulf of Mexico. Curriculum packages accompany the tours and are supplies to teachers across the region. With this work we are projected to reach >3000 middle and high school students and 175 teachers and indirectly reach an additional 9,000 students who access and use the virtual platform across the Houston-Galveston region. The average student demographics for committed schools that submitted letters of support include: 77.9% underrepresented minority, 62.4% economically disadvantaged, and 37.8% at-risk for dropping out. With these interactive activities and action activities, students will gain environmental literacy, technology, and stewardship skills.
09:30 AM
An effective governance framework for selecting science and soft-measures to adapt Cala Millor Coastal Touristic Station to climate change (7446)
Primary Presenter: Aida Pericas Palou, Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) / University of Balearic Islands (UIB) (apericas@socib.es)
The effects caused by climate change on coastal systems, especially regarding sea level rise and the associated extreme events, are a major concern for coastal management and society. When applying management strategies, a lack of information can lead to the alteration of natural systems with an important role on coastal protection, bringing the need of new mitigation, monitoring and/or adaptation projects. However, reaching solutions agreed upon by the entire community can be challenging. Cala Millor (Balearic Islands, Spain) is an example of a transformed ecosystem where the urbanization of the land has led to the modification of a dune system and the artificialization and consequent erosion of a beach system, leaving buildings exposed to coastal flooding. This risk affects not only the environment, but also the entire settled population, including two municipalities, hotels, schools and associations for the elderly, among others. The ‘LIFE AdaptCalaMillor’ project arises from the growing concern and the need to minimize the risks associated with sea level rise and coastal flooding. In this work, a multi-level governance perspective with a participatory approach is proposed. The Think-Reason-Understand-Share-Test (TRUST) method aims to take into account the opinion of representatives from each sector through communication, listening and involvement. In this way, people's input is sought to achieve a balanced interaction and a common feeling, eliminating gaps and leading the project to successful strategies for facing the effects of climate change in Cala Millor.
09:45 AM
Culture and traditions of Nigerian coastal dwellers and influence of the environment. (5618)
Primary Presenter: Ngozi Oguguah, Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research Lagos Nigeria (ngozimoguguah@yahoo.com)
Nigerian coastal inhabitants' culture is strongly connected with their environment, from fishing and resource collection to spiritual ties with nature and art as a form of cultural expression. The coastal region of Nigeria is home to many distinct ethnic groups, who are separated into two groups: those who reside on the mainland and those who dwell on the islands off the coast. People from diverse tribes such as the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, and Ijaw make up the former, while Efik, Ibibio, and Kalabari make up the latter. These separate cultures have their own languages, traditions, and beliefs that set them apart from one another. One of the customs prominent among theses tribes is fishing which is a popular activity among these tribes is fishing, which is a popular activity among Nigerians who live near the coast. This practice has been passed down through generations making it an integral part of their culture to date. Additionally, some families rely solely on fishing for survival, so it plays a major role in sustaining their livelihoods. Music and dance are important traditions found among coastal dwellers. Different types of festivals connected to water such as boat regattas, spiritual sacrifices and fishing competitions are conversant with coastal dwellers. Other emotionally related activities such as the mode of dressing, food and its way of preparation will be discussed in this paper as it influences their environment.
EP004 Exploring the Emotional Connection Between Society and the Ocean
Description
Time: 8:30 AM
Date: 5/6/2023
Room: Sala Portixol 2