World Ocean Day: remembering our relationship with the ocean

Every year, World Ocean Day prompts a flood of articles, reports, and social media posts about the ocean.

My own feed has been full of discussions about the blue economy, risk, investment, innovation, and opportunity. These are all important and many of them are conversations I spend a lot of my time having through my work with the Ocean Literacy Project.

But for World Ocean Day, I think it’s important to pause and think about the ocean differently. Let’s think about it not as something to save, or something to invest in, not as a resource to manage, or even as the life-support blue machine that regulates our climate, produces much of the oxygen we breathe and supports economies and livelihoods around the world.

Just the ocean… as it is.

Life first emerged in the ocean around 3.5 billion years ago. Perhaps that is why so many of us feel something when we stand beside it, awe, wonder, peace, curiosity, sometimes even fear.

Whatever it is, the ocean seems to connect to something within us.

I love the theme for this year’s world ocean day:

‘Reimagine: Beyond the world we know, a new relationship with our ocean’

Ocean literacy means to understand how we affect the ocean and the ocean influences our everyday lives.

I would like to imagine a future where ocean literacy is woven throughout education, from early years through to adulthood. A future where understanding our dependence on a healthy ocean is considered a basic part of being an informed citizen, professional, and leader.

I am a marine scientist as well as a yoga teacher, I know that understanding the science matters, understanding the challenges matters, understanding the links between ocean health, climate stability, food security, and economic resilience matters.

But the intellectual understanding alone is not enough, I think what is important is we also need opportunities to reconnect, to remember that we are not separate from the natural world that sustains us. To move beyond awareness and towards a sense of remembrance and belonging.

A wonderful ocean storyteller shared this poem by Jarod K. Anderson with me today which I think captures this essence:

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔. 
𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑎 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑎𝑔𝑜. 
𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ. 
𝑀𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑔𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑤. 
𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. 
𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡. 
𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔.

~𝐽𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑑 𝐾. 𝐴𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛
𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝐺𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡; 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑟𝑦𝑝𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡

The poem reminds me that while data and science help us understand the ocean, reflection helps us develop a relationship with it. In a world of constant notifications, endless information, and competing demands for our attention, one of the most important things we can do is slow down and notice. To sit beside the sea, listen to the waves, watch the tide, feel the wind.

To pay attention.

It reminds me of Mary Oliver’s poem

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

This year's World Ocean Day theme invites us to imagine a new relationship with the ocean. For me, that relationship begins with connection, to stop thinking and analysing and just experience.

So, wherever you are this World Ocean Day, I hope you find a way to connect with the ocean in your own way. Whether that is through science, education, art, advocacy, poetry, swimming, surfing, sailing, reading or whatever it may be for you.

The ocean has shaped life on Earth for billions of years. This World Ocean Day, yes, let’s celebrate the ocean, but more importantly, to create lasting change, it is about remembering our place within it. After all, what if inner and outer change aren't separate challenges at all, but part of the same transformation?

As well as my work at Blue Alchemy Academy, I am also Founder of the Ocean Literacy Project CIC and Honorary Professor of Education and Environment at the University of Essex.