The ocean is our planet’s life support system but if we’re not careful, we may need to put it on life support. Before that happens, we need to inspire a deeper awakening and recognition of our wonderous ocean. Humanity must remain alive to the gifts of the deep before it’s too late. We know it can be done.
Turn to Space. The broader public connection to space is reverential – it fuels our imagination and inspires us with stories of human exceptionalism and progress. By contrast, the broader public connection to the ocean is mundane, woven with issues of poor health. Something clearly needs to change.
Just like mankind’s journey to space, the ocean can be a story of our journey to a brighter future, a place of new encounters and hope. We now have the technology to discover more of the ocean, and more of our planet, than we have in the last 10,000 years. But on its own, this knowledge is not enough to change hearts and minds.
In this UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, society must go further to rally the world to protect its ocean. We can’t rely on ocean community alone. To connect the ocean to people, we need to connect culture to the ocean. We must interweave the arts, sport, music, fashion, gaming, news, television, film, social media, consumer choices, religion and more, with the undersea world to influence human behaviour in favour of the ocean.
We are already seeing everyday people inspiring new connections with the ocean.
Take Scottish singer Nathan Evans for example. His 2021 sea shanty known as Wellerman brought global audiences together during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The whaling song, which opened with the iconic, “There once was a ship that put to sea, The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea…” became a viral TikTok hit that was sampled by many across the world. And just like that, the world was singing about the ocean. A ripple.
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