Sea for Society Represented at the Our Ocean Wealth Conference, Cork

Sea for Society Irish Area Leader AquaTT represented Sea for Society at the Our Ocean Wealth conference, held in Cork, which was organised by Sea for Society partner the Marine Institute. 

Pierre-Yves Cousteau Presents Sea for Society at Ocean Literacy Workshop

AquaTT moderated Ocean Literacy workshop on 10 July 2015 . This important workshop on Ocean Literacy looked at how we can improve people’s knowledge of the sea at all levels of society.

The workshop featured a panel of national and international experts, including legendary diver Pierre-Yves Cousteau, who presented his recent work on Sea for Society in which he collaborated with IUCN and NUI Galway on analysing the results of the Consultation Phase of the project.

The Ocean Literacy workshop panel at the Our Ocean Wealth Conference, Cork

The workshop focused on discussing in practical terms the formation of an Irish Ocean Literacy forum consisting of education, research, industry and government stakeholders. The forum would have the objective of creating a seamless education and information programme from primary to third level.

Ocean Literacy, and the idea of introducing it to schools, is quickly developing momentum, with the EU placing a strong focus on it at the moment. For Ireland, the concept of Ocean Literacy is gaining significant traction, especially in terms of integrating it with the Atlantic Action Plan.

Ireland is an island with some 220 million acres of seabed territory. Yet few people know that half the oxygen we breathe comes from microscopic plankton in the ocean, that 95% of international trade is carried by sea, or that 60% of the world’s population lives within 60km of the coast. Few people know how fragile the oceans are and how our everyday actions impact on ocean health.

Our Ocean Wealth - Ocean Literacy Workshop Speakers:

• David Murphy (AquaTT General Manager) - Workshop Moderator
• Pierre-Yves Cousteau (IUCN) - Keynote Speaker, Sea for Society
• Dr John Joyce (AquaTT) - Designing Ocean Literacy Programmes that Work
• Susan Heaney (Titanic Belfast) - Driving Ocean Literacy at Titanic Belfast
• Neil O’Hagan (Atlantic Youth Trust) - Is a Youth Development Tall Ship the Missing Piece of the Puzzle?
• Sinead McCoy (An Taisce) - The Clean Coasts Programme

Sea for Society Information Kiosk at Seafest

The Sea for Society Information Kiosk continued its tour around Ireland during the Our Ocean Wealth conference and Seafest event. 

The AquaTT Sea for Society team were on-hand to engage visitors

Visitors to the stand were asked to commit to doing 'Just One Thing' to protect the sea

Those who made pledges proudly displayed their 'I love the Sea' stickers!