Citizen Science and Ocean Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between Society and the Ocean

Fostering ocean literacy is key to strengthening the link between society and the ocean. This chapter promotes citizen science as a tool to improve ocean literacy and to (re-)connect participants with the marine environment. A series of narrative literature reviews are presented, establishing the connection between citizen science and the ten dimensions of ocean literacy: knowledge, awareness, attitude, behaviour, activism, communication, emotional connections, access and experience, adaptive capacity, and trust and transparency (McKinley et al., 2023). Three case study projects are also presented: (i) ProBleu – which aims to foster ocean and water literacy in school communities, in part by promoting citizen science as an education tool; (ii) Iliad – a project developing digital twins of the ocean with elements of citizen science and engagement; and (iii) FreshWater Watch – a global freshwater monitoring project which is included to demonstrate how the principles of ocean literacy can be applied to environmental literacy more broadly. The analysis demonstrates the close link between citizen science and ocean literacy and firmly establishes citizen science as a tool to bridge the gap between society and the ocean.