Motion for the Ocean gathers pace

This week, Falmouth Town Council declared an urgent need for ocean recovery and passed the Motion for the Ocean, becoming the first town council to do so. This is the second such declaration, following the pioneering Ocean Recovery Declaration by Plymouth City Council in November 2021. Conversations are being held with councils across the UK and more declarations are expected soon. We are at the beginning of a movement in which local government takes responsibility for its part in recovering ocean health, recognising the role that the ocean plays in human health and wider climate change.

The Motion for the Ocean came about from my frustrations with the lack of political commitment to coastal waters. Our government talks the talk about marine protected areas and creating a blue belt, but the reality is that many protections are in overseas territories (which comes with its own set of issues) or are merely paper parks, at best maintaining poor quality habitats, at worst, not even doing that.

The poor funding allocated to our inshore waters conservation and regulation via the IFCA network indicated to me a lack of commitment to integrating conservation, economic and socio-cultural priorities in UK inshore waters. Yet coastal waters are where the vast majority of us experience the marine environment, forming bonds (or fears), enjoying it, and using it. Our coastal communities are founded on the relationship we have with the sea, and 80% of the UK’s fishing fleet is <10m, with those vessels spend most of their time fishing in inshore, coastal waters.

Greta Thunberg, perhaps the most powerful example of environmental citizenship

As a local Councillor, I played a role in Plymouth City Council’s climate emergency declaration in 2019. This fabulous movement started with a single motion proposed by an Australian local councillor in 2016. In 2018, Cllr Carla Denyer brought the motion to Bristol City Council and a model motion was developed that other local councils could use and adapt. Since then, the declaration travelled not only around UK local authorities but right up to national governments all around the world. I was inspired by this movement and wanted to see similar action for the ocean.

My PhD research investigated marine citizenship and found it to be more than people making individual choices, such as reducing their single-use plastic or choosing sustainably caught fish. Marine citizenship, like other kinds of citizenship, is a political act which is embedded in ethical and value principles. How marine citizenship can be undertaken depends upon what rights people have to participate in marine decision-making and this tends to be limited to formal planning consultations on a local scale, for example inshore wind farms, or more widely, such as the UK marine conservation zone consultation process. Beyond this, most people have access via campaigns created by others, for example through signing petitions or donating funds to NGOs.

Citizen science is one way of doing marine citizenship

I wanted to create a movement for ocean recovery that would provide a way for all people to act as marine citizens, no matter where they live, and so I began drafting a model Motion for the Ocean. A movement might begin with an idea, but it’s only a movement when other people get on board, so I reached out to friends and colleagues to help me.

First was Emily Cunningham, a marine and coastal specialist who I had met through the Coastal Futures conference series. As well as a range of work delivering marine and coastal projects, Emily coordinates the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group, which brings together 57 coastal local authorities, making her a fantastic person to bounce ideas around with for making a model motion that would work for local councils, and to spread the word.

Next was Nicola Bridge, Head of Ocean Advocacy and Engagement at the Ocean Conservation Trust, Chair of the Conservation Education Committee of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), and President of EMSEA (European Marine Science Educators). Nicola and I had connected over marine social science and set up the Plymouth Chapter of the Marine Social Science Network (MarSocSciPlym), mostly so that we could keep up our interesting conversations and have them with more people! I wanted to make sure that our model motion would recognise not only activities which directly impact upon on the ocean, but would also include commitments that would develop skills in people, particularly marine citizenship and ocean literacy, and Nicola is an expert in public engagement with the sea.

With Emily and Nicola, we refined the model motion and with the support of the Ocean Conservation Trust we launched it in November 2021, on the back of COP26, which saw oceans as a fundamental part of climate change recognised for the first time in the Glasgow Pact.

Plymouth has a natural harbour in the Plymouth Sound, a diverse and growing marine economy, and a considerable number of environmental designations protecting the rich marine habitat and wildlife. The Council has been proactive, becoming the first to declare a National Marine Park (NMP) in the UK. To me, Plymouth was a natural choice to become the first council to make an Ocean Recovery Declaration. The NMP was already aiming to develop ways of promoting ocean literacy and marine citizenship in local people and visitors, so the motion commitments would have really sound foundations.

It was an honour to propose the Ocean Recovery Declaration at full Council in November 2022 and to have the support of seconder Cllr Tudor Evans OBE and the Labour Group to bring in this important policy commitment. The administration tabled an amendment which would see the pledges reduced to being components of a report to the scrutiny panel but with support from Plymouth’s independent Councillors, we defeated the amendment and successfully passed the motion in its original form.

This week’s news that Falmouth Town Council has also made an Ocean Recovery Declaration shows that the model motion can work for different levels of local authority. The three authors are keen to see which will be the first council outside of the South West of England, and which will be the first inland council to formally recognise the influence all UK communities have on the sea, no matter where they are geographically. We are supporting a number of Councillors in their ambitions to bring the motion to their councils and keep this wave rolling.

The spiny starfish