The water and humans have intricate, interwoven, and symbiotic relationships. The ocean is essential to human welfare because it offers a wide range of benefits, including food, transportation, health, culture, and inspiration. These elements explain the ocean’s significance to humanity and serve as the basis for the Ocean Literacy (OL) Principles. The ocean makes up 71% of the planet’s surface and is responsible for many aspects of life as most living things and natural treasures on the globe are found in the ocean, making the planet livable and valuable through the control of the temperature and is a significant supply of chemicals, oxygen, water, and nutrients. However, because the ocean is subject to unsustainable levels of pressure from humans and must endure several anthropogenic stresses, its health is gravely threatened. Actions like pollution and overfishing. These factors’ combined impacts include changing biogeochemical and physical processes, destroying habitats, and reducing biodiversity contributing to climate change and global warming.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which require action by all nations to promote prosperity while protecting the environment, are another manifestation of the need to broadly acknowledge this situation, comprehend its consequences, and take action at all levels at land and sea to achieve a sustainable existence of life on Earth (SDG 14). Therefore, cooperation between nations in ocean science is crucial to advancing scientific understanding, building research capacity, and transferring marine technologies. To attain this objective OL principles are identified by the researchers which are:
> There is just one large, feature-rich ocean on Earth.
> Earth’s characteristics are shaped by the water and marine life.
>The weather and climate are significantly influenced by the ocean.
> The oceans allowed life to exist on Earth.
> A wide variety of organisms and habitats may be found in the ocean.
> Humans and the ocean are inseparably linked.
> Very little is known about the ocean.
These principles highlighted the need to develop the curricula including the ocean/blue education/literacy. Any country’s ability to succeed depends on its ability to use its resources effectively and efficiently, with human resources being the most important as they must be transformed into human capital. Education and training in the necessary fields are the only ways to bring about this transition. In a similar vein, the potential of the Blue economy can only be explored through the literacy of stakeholders from where we all belong to. We all have to realize the fact that this world is distributed by humans but connected through the ocean by God so, joint efforts to spread awareness regarding our oceans are the need of time. Several impactful activities to create awareness are on record that bring change and leave positive footprints on the ocean. In 2020, people in the United Kingdom (after several awareness & literacy camps) have realized that their actions have the power to alter policy. To reduce waste, TV chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall started the Fish Fight campaign. The campaign attracted over 870,000 participants from 195 nations, three years later European lawmakers decided to outlaw throwaway items.
The Volvo Ocean Race, a globally renowned sporting event, won the International Sports Awards’ Sports CSR Campaign of the Year. This prize was granted to honor the Volvo Ocean Race’s strong message against marine plastics, which directly led to changes in government policy and corporate practices. More and more clothing manufacturers are turning to rivers and seas for their recycled garbage to make yarn; some are even turning to algae for the outside soles of shoes. Adidas has even designed a football uniform for Manchester United Football Club using recycled ocean plastic, and by 2024, the sportswear company plans to use recycled plastic in every product so, there is no doubt that literacy leads to a positive change. The vast array of experiences related to marine litter in various contexts and domains (industrial, societal, public policies, etc.) (Research, awareness, education, innovation experiences, etc.) Could be seen as a pertinent window of opportunity to systematize knowledge transfer and to take advantage of available Knowledge Outputs, including those for OL and general awareness. OL enforces design the policies that connect ocean education efforts and the Blue Economy, through marine careers and industry.
Enhanced knowledge transfer and education related to the ocean and its practices (a) facilitate the synthesis of pertinent information, which is necessary for a better understanding and for making
Informed decisions; (b) foster creativity and innovation and the development of the so-called “21st Century Skills.
Instead of many actions, still we are short of outcomes because,
> The value of the ocean to mankind as a whole and especially to economic activity is not well understood.
>Open access knowledge has significantly increased information accessibility, but access alone will not enable the knowledge to reach the larger population of prospective consumers. Users with ocean literacy will be more likely to recognize and use the finest information available.
> There are still gaps in the relationships that exist between practitioners and stakeholders from the many domains or sectors, including science, education, business, policy, and general civic engagement. The culture of working in silos is hard to break. Long-term, multi-stakeholder projects must be encouraged.
> Diverse stakeholder groups have distinct motivations and possible incentives, which are not necessarily completely understood and accepted by each group. Analysis is required for effective ocean literacy promotions.
> For OL initiatives, impact generation, and monitoring are crucial. Projects must be taken that generate more socio-economic outcomes.
> Knowledge transfer and OL activities need a strategic and systematic approach which must be monitored, and assessed once they are carried out since they need a deliberate and methodical approach to execution.
>OL and knowledge transfer demand resources, time, and expertise. Investments in communication, knowledge transfer, and/or OL activities are inadequate. When it comes to allocating resources for their execution.
> For leaving high impacts, small projects/training are necessarily part of academic curricula in schools, and colleges and as a mandatory CSR in universities (not restricted to beach cleaning). These projects/CSR work are designed to connect the relevant field of education of students with the ocean literacy programs.
Thus the most common playing field for the OL so far has been within the education sector and the general public where, enhanced knowledge transfer and education related to the ocean and its practices facilitate the synthesis of pertinent information, which is necessary for a better understanding and for making informed decisions, foster creativity and innovation and the development of the Blue economy where ocean literacy/blue education is more than just a field of study; it’s a strategy that fundamentally alters the blue growth (blue and green output) scenario by utilizing the ocean’s underutilized potential to create jobs and economic growth based on the idea of limited land and water resources (Growth, 2012).Bennett et al. (2019) assert that as the economy grows, blue literacy may have a major impact on environmental sustainability. These environmental effects could have social repercussions as well, such as harming people’s livelihoods, food security, or health (local populations and some vulnerable segments of society are likely to bear the brunt of environmental justice issues), as well as ecosystem services that coastal communities and populations depend on for their well-being.
