ocean & Society survey
Welcome to the official page of the Ocean & Society Survey!
We are excited to announce that the Ocean & Society Survey – a collaboratively designed global instrument – is nearing its launch date in Summer 2024. We invite you to join this groundbreaking effort for the implementation stage. Bookmark this page to stay abreast of upcoming developments and tool access, for wide international use and uptake.
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.
When can you start? Bookmark this page and sign up below for updates on the launch date of the Ocean & Society Survey–when it will become available for international uptake and use in late summer/early fall 2024. Before this time, an accompanying guidebook will be made available on this site for interested facilitators of this tool. After familiarizing yourself with the guidebook, if you would like to connect to have an overview of the tool and begin to plan your country survey, feel free to contact jen@colcoalition.ca
Core Co-Designing Partner Organizations/Institutions:
- Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition*; Dalhousie University
- Cardiff University; Marine Social Sciences Network
- Instituto do Mar–Universidade Federal de São Paulo
- University of Connecticut; Connecticut Sea Grant
Research Team Members:
- Jen McRuer (manager), Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition; Dalhousie University
- Diz Glithero, Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition; Dalhousie University
- Emma McKinley, Cardiff University; Marine Social Sciences Network
- Ronaldo Christofoletti, Instituto do Mar–Universidade Federal de São Paulo
- Barbara Pinheiro, Instituto do Mar–Universidade Federal de São Paulo
- Vinicius Lindoso, UNESCO
- Diana Payne, University of Connecticut/Connecticut Sea Grant
- Nicola Bridge, Ocean Conservation Trust
- Marilia Bueno Fernandes, Instituto do Mar–Universidade Federal de São Paulo
- Janaina De Araujo Bumbeer E Couto, Group Boticario Foundation
- David Zandvliet, Simon Fraser University
- Jordi Pagès Fauria, Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC)
- Geraldine Fauville, University of Gothenburg
- Craig Strang, Lawrence Hall of Science
