Achieving global ocean sustainability requires meaningful engagement with society, and ocean literacy has emerged as a critical tool for fostering awareness, education, and action on ocean issues. Defined as people’s understanding, attitudes, and behaviours toward the ocean, ocean literacy has been recognised as a key objective in international sustainability frameworks, including the UN Ocean Decade. In Australia, interest in ocean literacy is rapidly growing, with increasing research and applied efforts to integrate it into policy, education, and community initiatives.
Following the AMSA 2024 ocean literacy symposium, where colleagues convened to co-author a perspective piece on ocean literacy in Australia, this presentation will discuss key themes raised in the paper and reflect on progress made over the past year. We will explore recent advancements in ocean literacy research and policy, highlighting small but significant steps towards embedding ocean literacy in governance and education. Additionally, we will identify priority areas for future work, including strengthening cross-sector collaboration, engaging communities in ocean learning, and securing long-term policy and funding support.
A central focus will be the call to develop a National Ocean Literacy Strategy and establish an Australian Ocean Literacy Coalition to drive coordinated research, collaboration, and implementation.