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The Sandin Lab has been working with state-of-the-art technology that captures coral reefs as a 3D image at a spatial scale that has never before been captured. The objective of capturing these images on such a large-scale is to monitor the growth of the coral reefs over time and understand their dynamics from a whole ecosystem perspective. I am expanding the audience that this technology currently reaches by using these large-scale 3D models as an education and outreach tool in the hopes that it increases ocean stewardship and awareness. This idea was tested on the island of Curacao with three different user groups: dive shop owners, dive tourists, and the local community. The local community consisted of the Carmabi Marine Education Center and the International School of Curacao. By talking with the different user groups around the island, I gauged general interest in the photomosaics and gathered information on how each user group could find use for the photomosaics. There is potential for the dive shop owners and dive tourists to use the photomosaics in the future once the advancement of technology allows us to hurdle some of the current challenges we face.  However, both of these local communities will now be incorporating the 3D photomosaics as an education module into their curriculum.

Current ocean management approaches are often characterised by economic or environmental objectives, paying limited consideration to social and cultural dimensions, as well as Indigenous and local knowledge. These approaches tend to inhibit ocean stewardship, often marginalising coastal communities or limiting people’s access to spiritual, traditional and recreational uses of the ocean and coast. Piloting arts-based participatory research methods to co-create knowledge with co-researchers in Algoa Bay, South Africa finds that these methods can be useful in highlighting cultural connections to the ocean, and remembering and imagining, or reimagining, ways in which people relate to and care for the ocean and coast. For example, using photography and in situ storytelling often allows people to convey memories and histories of more accessible coastlines, or envisaging a future with more inclusive and participatory ocean management. The study finds that there is a strong sense of exclusion from and lack of access to coastal and ocean areas in Algoa Bay where Indigenous and local communities have depended on for spiritual, cultural and recreational purposes for several generations. Co-creation of knowledge regarding connections, values and priorities of the coast and ocean with Indigenous and local communities should therefore be planned for before the implementation of integrated ocean management approaches and intentionally designed as part of adaptive management processes. Emphasising these cultural connections, and better recognising them in ocean management has the potential to include i people’s awareness of the ocean which could translate into an increased sense of care and stewardship towards the ocean and coast as people feel more connected to their contextual seascapes. This could in turn contribute to a more sustainable sociocultural approach to ocean management which is necessary for equitable and sustainable future ocean social-ecological wellbeing.

We investigated the health risks and benefits among surfers in Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz County, California, United States after seawater exposure. A total of 47 surfers enrolled and completed an online survey on the effect of the ocean environment on their well-being, physical and mental health, and provided their perspectives on ocean conservation. The majority of the surfers were white males, with a median age of 40 years, and a mean of 21 years surfing experience. Most of the participants spent over 5 h/week in the ocean. The most common health problems reported were adverse effects due to red tide exposure, surfer’s ear, back and neck problems, and allergies. A total of 41% reported upper respiratory symptoms, and 8% of the participants reported gastrointestinal symptoms. All participants reported that the ocean benefited their emotional health, and 45/47 (>96%) reported that the ocean increased their life satisfaction, happiness, and decreased their stress level. All participants reported being engaged in ocean stewardship. This study suggests surfers were significantly more likely to report upper respiratory symptoms when they had experienced adverse health effects while surfing during a “red tide” and during a bloom of the microscopic, single-celled phytoplankter, Akashiwo sanguinea.

Marine litter, the majority of which is plastic, is one of the most pressing global environmental challenges impacting the planet. One way coastal communities respond to this challenge is through the environmental stewardship practice of volunteer beach cleanups. Beyond providing temporarily cleaner local beaches, how might these beach cleanups have broader impacts in the global struggle against plastic pollution? Using the lenses of environmental stewardship and civic ecology, we conducted a content analysis of primary source materials created by 50 groups involved in volunteer beach cleanups. We collected data on the scale at which groups coordinate volunteer beach cleanups, the roles they play in conducting these cleanups, how they interact with other volunteer beach cleanup groups, and the other forms of stewardship they conduct, if any. Within our sample, we identified groups coordinating volunteer beach cleanups at five geographic scales: local, sub-national, national, multi-national, and global. Within the groups operating at each scale, we found groups conducting environmental stewardship in the forms of education, advocacy, research, and monitoring in addition to their conservation work through beach cleanups. Our findings demonstrate that groups branch out their impacts by combining different forms of environmental stewardship targeting plastic pollution, and they collaborate to scale up their actions in ways that contribute to plastic pollution governance. Connecting these findings with the literature on the broader impacts of civic ecology practices allows us to theorize how volunteer beach cleanup groups branch out and scale up their efforts to weave a global net of ocean stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]