ocean & Society survey
Welcome to the official page of the Ocean & Society Survey!
- standardizing ways to best measure patterns and changes in public ocean perceptions, values, attitudes, and behavioural intentions;
- measuring the impacts of ocean literacy and ocean conservation initiatives on public understanding, empathy, and engagement.
The idea? To co-administer the survey across countries, and over time, to take a global stocktake of public perceptions, values, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward the ocean.
The motivation? To enable the emergence of a global baseline across countries and regions, offering a timely opportunity for shared learning to inform directions for adaptability and impactful action for human societies and the ocean. ‘Changing humanity’s relationship with the ocean’ is a foundational Challenge of the UN Ocean Decade (2021–2030).
Who can use this tool? If you are a researcher, practitioner, communicator, or decision-maker with an interest in using the survey to better understand the pulse of ocean-human health in your country, this tool is for you! The survey can involve participants 18 years of age or older.
Why get involved? By facilitating this tool in your respective region, you’ll:
- Share invaluable insights to understand the impact of ocean literacy and conservation initiatives on public understanding, empathy, and engagement–and vice versa; and
- Contribute country-specific data to a comparable, open access database, to critically inform ongoing research, practice, and communication initiatives; alongside directions for decision-making and action.
🌊 Shape the Future: All voices are needed to better understand how we can support the ocean’s vital role in human, non-human, and planetary well-being. By using this tool to capture national views and experiences in your country, you’ll help guide policies and initiatives that promote ocean conservation and sustainability worldwide.
🌎 Global Perspective: Join a diverse community of researchers and practitioners from around the globe implementing this survey, and thereby enriching our understanding of diverse cultural and contextual perceptions of the ocean.
📊 Data-Driven Decisions: Your implementation will afford essential public contributions to a global repository, informing decision-makers, researchers, educators, communicators, and conservationists.
🔍 Long-Term Impact: By participating in this initiative, you’ll be part of an ongoing effort to monitor and understand how public perceptions of the ocean evolve over time, helping to illuminate pathways toward effective strategies that can support pro-ocean changes in human values, behaviors, and actions.
🤝 Community Collaboration: Connect with fellow researchers, fostering collaboration and sharing insights to address pressing challenges facing our ocean.
As we near the half-way mark of the UN Ocean Decade, let’s make bigger waves. Together, let’s pave the way for timely and effective strategies, initiatives, research, and practice that support a truly global ocean literate society.
How can you get involved?
- Plan to administer the Survey in your country via independent survey platform
- Secure of inquire about funds to administer the Survey through our networked public opinion survey agency platform
- View and analyze your country dataset and that of other countries, through the centralized, open-access data hub (forthcoming)
- Tune into the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France in June 2025 to learn from the initial analysis of participating countries
- Join the OLRC to connect with fellow researchers, practitioners, and communications specialists to further the potential of the Survey data, results sharing, and communication reach and uptake to diverse stakeholders and communities
- Contact Jen McRuer at jen@colcoalition.ca with any questions
