World Ocean Network

Raising awareness of the paramount role that the ocean plays in everyday life, informing the general public about the state of the ocean, explaining the complexities of maritime issues, making known sustainable policies and involving people in their implementation, and provoking the desire to adopt sustainable behaviour in favour of marine environment – these have been the World Ocean Network's priorities since 2002. The network participating organisations which are educational organisations, aquariums, science centres, natural history museums, zoos, NGOs, etc. have an audience of more than 250 million people every year all over the world. The role they can play in developing communication strategies towards general public is real and has an impact in the raising of public awareness on marine issues, preservation and identity.

There is one World Ocean, a life support system on Earth and every human being is responsible for it.

The world’s oceans are interconnected to form one ocean, a huge common territory with no frontiers that every human being is responsible for. To serve the conservation of the World Ocean, the WORLD OCEAN NETWORK (WON) has developed a concept of Citizenship of the Ocean to forge a new vision of the World Ocean as a common heritage of mankind. To strengthen the awareness of human connection to the World Ocean and to encourage people to act for the future of the Blue Planet, the WON participating organisations have developed tools and actions. They consist of: the PASSPORT Citizen of the Ocean, the World Oceans Day , Youth Parliaments for the Ocean, Public debates, Public mobilisation, Ocean Info Pack.