On 10 March, the UK’s National Decade Committee – Ocean Decade UK – hosted its first stakeholder event, supported by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and The Royal Society. The event marked a critical midpoint in the UN Ocean Decade and brought together a great mix of attendees to participate in discussions on the UK’s engagement with the UN Ocean Decade and a look ahead at the next five years and beyond. It featured both early career and established ocean professionals across its organising committee, speaker line up and audience.
Prof. Matthew Frost, UK National Decade Committee Chair, chaired the event, which featured an introductory special message from Emma Hardy MP, Minister for Water and Flooding, who echoed the importance of the UN Ocean Decade. As an Early Career Ocean Professional, it was uplifting to hear her mention the need to involve ECOPs in decision-making processes at all costs.
A policy panel brought together the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom, and was followed by workshops and presentations focused on three themes:
🌊 Sustainable use, management and protection of the ocean
🏝️ Supporting climate-resilient coastal communities
🐚 Human-ocean connections
As an ECOP, it was a fantastic opportunity to hear from a range of stakeholders from policy, research, charitable and industry organisations, and be trusted with a role to facilitate discussions highlighting the complexities, intricacies and conflicts within these topics. Ideas were built upon and we ended our day centring on the human-ocean relationship, confirming that people are essential to maintaining momentum and must be supported to do this work through education, funding and collaborative initiatives.
The evening reception featured an exhibition courtesy of National Oceanography Centre, Royal College of Art, Historic England and SeaVoice, whilst guest speakers Emily G Cunningham MBE from Motion for The Ocean and Rebecca Daniel from The Marine Diaries shared their inspiring journeys into ocean conservation action and the importance of accessibility and storytelling.
I was extremely pleased to see these two taking the podium, having met them at the Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona in 2024. They are a testament to the talent and dedication that is homegrown in the UK, and they urged that there is still much to be done when it comes to connecting humans to the ocean. The next 5 years are an opportunity we need to create big shifts, not only in science and policy but on a societal level.
The committee has just released the workshop report which includes insights from the three stakeholder engagement workshops.
Words by: Natalie Fox
Photos by: Syriol Jones Photography