Take a person to the ocean who has never seen or touched it before and it’s better than watching a person eat chocolate for the first time. Eyes get big… and they close. Deep breaths are drawn. Stillness, listening, breathing.
The ocean can rouse every sense, every emotion: excitement, fear, peace and freedom. We are compelled to touch it. Depending on the temperature we may immediately want to roll in it, be enveloped by it, or prefer to just sit beside it.
In an island nation, it is no surprise that there are hundreds of Australian organisations, communities and individuals invested in using, valuing, managing and governing our oceans. We know that the lives of all living things are inextricably linked to the ocean – we may be living near it, on it, or thousands of kilometres away, but it is the reason that we can all breathe – relatively – easy on this planet. The ocean covers almost three quarters of the planet, producing around 50 percent of the oxygen required, and houses most of Earth’s biodiversity. And yet, it is mostly unknown to us – less known to us than the surface of Mars.
The decade 2021–2030 has been declared the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. A global stakeholder engagement exercise, overseen by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, has produced a framework that articulates 10 challenges and seven outcomes for ‘the ocean we want’.
As a marine science graduate and having worked in the STEM sector for almost three decades I am deeply optimistic about this opportunity. The ocean is one of few areas in science that emotionally connects the many, immediately. Everyone I know has an ocean story. Everyone’s got an opinion.
So how do we use the Ocean Decade to connect science and research to business, hearts and minds, and government policy? Since early 2021, I have been working with two others to take Australia’s Ocean Decade conversation beyond the usual stakeholders in government and research to develop a national dialogue. We have created a platform – www.oceandecadeaustralia.org – to understand what Australians think ‘success’ for the ocean by the year 2030 might look like, how they would measure it, and what action and behaviours they think are needed in order to bring it about.
Throughout this process, we have confirmed that we cannot talk about the ocean and its challenges without taking a generous and inclusive view of ocean stakeholders. From financiers to fishers, educators to energy providers, artists to agriculturalists, tourism operator,
to traditional knowledge keepers, insurers to investors, surfers to sailors – every stakeholder is not only welcome but needed. Built-up bias and simmering cynicism have no place in these discussions – treat any set of stakeholders as ‘the bad guys’ and productive dialogue stops.
Having enjoyed hundreds of inspiring, aspiring and positively challenging and mind-shifting ocean conversations over the past six months, there is a unifying theme that paradoxically gives me even greater hope: no-one thinks we’ve got ocean policies right. Everyone wants to do better. Everyone wants to live less guiltily. We all want the information that tells us how to do that – as company directors, CEOs, volunteers, custodians and individuals.
To date our stakeholders have told us we need evidence-based decision-making, a way of valuing the ocean, understanding our impact, and crucially – a plan that considers generations to come. I have come to think of that plan as a ‘new blue deal’ between humans and the ocean – the setting of a course of action that enables us to continue to use and enjoy the ocean, and that generates long-term ‘success’ well beyond an allotted decade. To me, it makes a lot of sense to use the Ocean Decade as the global call to action, and to create a framework against which we can seek to measure success.
Ultimately, it is our behaviours as business, industry, community or cultural leaders – and as individuals – that will deliver the best judgement on whether we successfully develop a framework to consider our oceans in our actions.
We know for certain that the oceans will be here to tell their own story to future humans on just how successful we were.
Article by Jas Chambers
Photo Credit: iStock photo ID:102753260