Ocean literacy

"We can only love what we know and we will only protect what we love." 

If we want to preserve the ocean in a way that brings us joy and ensures our survival on the planet then we need to develop society's level of ocean literacy. Only when we understand how important the ocean is to us all will we be able to make responsible decisions regarding the ocean and its resources. With improved ocean literacy we will automatically change our behaviour and motivate others to do the same. 

Society's commitment to our ocean, inspired by pioneers such as Hans Hass and Jacques Yves Cousteau and supported since 1992 by the German Ocean Foundation's research and media vessel ALDEBARAN, was reviewed in the early 2000s by the National Marine Educators Association in the USA, establishing a movement promoting ocean literacy which has since been taken up by a global network of marine educators. The National Marine Educators Association has established the following principles as the basis for marine education:

• The earth has one big ocean with many features.

• The ocean and life in the ocean shape our planet. 

• The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate.

• The ocean makes Earth habitable.

• The ocean is home to a great diversity of life and ecosystems.

• The ocean and people are inextricably linked.

• The ocean is still largely unexplored.

The German Ocean Foundation's work in Germany follows the strategy of UNESCO, striving to include the ocean in school curricula sine 2015. At the first UN Ocean Conference in 2017, UNESCO launched its programme "Ocean Literacy for All" which aims to promote the development of ocean literacy worldwide and at all educational levels by providing guidelines and courses for policy makers, journalists, teachers and civil society.

In 2022, at the One Ocean Summit in France, UNESCO called on all countries to include marine education in their curricula by 2025 and presented its toolkit "A New Blue Curriculum" for policy makers, ministries of education and teachers at all levels. The toolkit provides guidance on how to develop and implement an ocean curriculum and highlights examples of countries already working on ocean education, such as Portugal, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Kenya and Sweden, showcasing results, opportunities and challenges encountered in the attempt to include the ocean in the school curriculum.

The most recent conference on ocean literacy, which took place in Venice in 2024 with the participation of the German Ocean Foundation, concluded with the adoption of the Venice Declaration for Ocean Literacy in Action:

Ocean Literacy is more than understanding ocean science; it means recognizing the far-reaching consequences of our actions. By cultivating a global culture of ocean stewardship, we can facilitate a future where we thrive in harmony with the ocean. It is our collective will and responsibility to foster a more just and sustainable relationship with our vital global commons: all life on Earth depends on it. We need an ocean-literate society that advocates for policies that respect the ocean’s inherent right to exist, flourish and regenerate.

For the German Ocean Foundation , marine education for all is one of its most important priorities. Marine education should be accessible to everyone from kindergarten to elementary school to university - and further education, but also for older generations. Every German Ocean Foundation project has an educational element: from the "love your ocean" initiative at boot in Düsseldorf, which welcomes over 1,000 schoolchildren every year, to the annual SeaExperienceDays on the Baltic Sea coast or the Ocean Science exhibition on the Cap San Diego in Hamburg to the research at sea competition, where schoolchildren from the 9th grade and above have the opportunity to conduct their own marine research on board the research vessel ALDEBARAN.

In addition, the German Ocean Foundation organizes events and projects for schools, collaborates on the Ocean Lovers Education platform and our Ocean Book and supports young marine biologists in the early stages of their careers.

We are convinced that the more you know about the ocean, the more you will do to protect it.