Youth project protects oceans, climate
WILDOCEANS facilitated the implementation of one of the modules for the Ocean Champs project during which pupils in Grades 8 and 9, matriculated youth aged 18 to 25 and marine educators and school teachers learned about marine pollution.
The group on board WILDOCEANS’s research vessel the Angra Pequena gained firsthand insights into how to obtain samples for data and analysed the samples collected.
The organisation said climate change and pollution were global issues and had a significant impact on the ocean.
Conserving marine and coastal ecosystems has brought together likeminded projects spanning continents.
One such project is the Bremen-Durban Marine Environmental Education Network, also known as Ocean Champs.
The project is jointly implemented by eThekwini Municipality and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen in Germany as part of a climate change partnership between the two cities.
The partnership targets Grade 8 and 9, matriculated youth aged 18 to 25 and marine educators and school teachers.
Being largely youth-focused, the project strives to empower the youth to take an active role as “ocean champions” in the protection of the sea and the reduction of marine pollution which will ultimately influence the rate of climate change.
The module is led by Anne Jaeger and Lara Stuthmann from the Lebniz for Tropical Marine Research in Bremen.
“After completing my Master’s in Marine Biology, I looked at the importance of closing the gap between science and the general public. I wanted to give the knowledge back to the community and schoolchildren,” said Jaeger.
“I remember taking a trip to the Mediterranean Sea and collecting samples. Each sample contained microplastics. It was at that point when the idea to write a curriculum on microplastic pollution was birthed. This curriculum has been taught at a school in Bremen for half a year, to date.”
“WILDOCEANS, as a service provider, has put this group in a really good position to learn about the marine environment, not just for themselves, but for the general public.”
A typical full day of training on the Angra Pequena for the Ocean Champs project started off with the collection of data through various ways, then the analysing of the data, followed by discussion, swimming, returning to the harbour, picking up litter and ending with a nurdle hunt.