BLUE Education

Marine conservation education rarely features within school curriculums, meaning that younger generations often lack a personal interest in protecting the ocean. BLUE is bridging this gap through innovative educational materials, community engagement, capacity building, empowering ambassadors, connecting with schools and enhancing career opportunities for young adults.

In the Maldives BLUE education has established three citizen science programmes teaching young people scientific field skills, and also giving them the opportunity to attend local seminar series led by conservation experts. In addition, local Maldivian fishermen that sign up to a sustainable “code of conduct” receive educational sessions on topics like climate change.

In the Aeolians, we have supported local students by providing a two-month marine education programme, led by marine biologists and small-scale fishermen from the area, encouraging knowledge of the sea to be passed to younger generations and creates conservation ambassadors, this is particularly important in the Aeolian islands, where community backing is important in designating an MPA.

BLUE’s educational “makerzines” feature popouts of St Helena’s MPA and explore topics such as ocean innovation, climate change, overfishing and the wonderful adaptations of species such as yellowfin tuna. Copies have been distributed to school children in Ascension, St Helena (where we are also working on an online ocean-saving game), the Solent, the Maldives and London.