Towards a healthy ocean for all and beyond

On November 13, an interactive virtual workshop on the topic “Towards a healthy ocean for all and beyond” will be held as part of the Ocean Decade project Beyond One Ocean Health (B1OH). As a satellite event of the DITTO (Digital Twins of the Ocean) conference in Xiamen, China, on November 13-24, 2023, this workshop will set the scene to advance crucial ongoing discussions on the concept of (one) ocean health. The B1OH initiative, led by Professor Marie-Catherine Riekhof from the Center for Ocean and Society (CeOS), a cross-faculty platform of the priority research area Kiel Marine Science (KMS) at Kiel University, aims to engage in finding solutions for the current predicament and to point towards what can be called a healthy ocean for all and beyond. All interested parties, whether from academia, civil society, NGOs, or business, are invited to the workshop. A wide variety of backgrounds is deliberately sought in order to best inform and advance the ongoing (scientific) discussions.

B1OH initiative aims at finding solutions for a healthy ocean

The ocean plays a crucial role for all life on the planet and for climate regulation. However, the ocean as we are familiar with is in jeopardy and can no longer be considered to be in a healthy state. The massive impact of phenomena such as anthropogenic climate change, pollution, ocean acidification and ocean degradation, such as ecosystem disruption and the destruction of the (marine) environment, are now threatening the ocean and all life that depends on it. Further, the provision of basic functions, e.g. food and other supplies for human use, transportation routes or recreational areas is being endangered.

Against this background and in light of established discussions on One Health, Environmental Health or Planetary Health, the B1OH initiative aims to address the current predicament and to point towards what can be called a healthy ocean for all and beyond. This should include considerations of health and disease in the ocean, ocean-mediated human disease, ocean-related prevention, healing including concepts of physical and spiritual well-being concepts, morality and justice of interventions with environmental health outcomes, understanding and living within planetary limits.

Based on three impulse presentations, the participants will be invited to contribute their own perspectives as to jointly move the discussion forward. This collaborative discussion will be guided by the workshop organizers using interactive online tools and will aim to collect participants perspectives on the concept of (one) ocean health and to identify blind spots in the respective ongoing and required research agenda.

The workshop is aimed at scientists, early career researchers, students and interested citizens who want to contribute more to the health of the oceans. The workshop will be held in English.

Co-Convener

Prof. Dr. Marie-Catherine Riekhof, Kiel University

Dr. Lotta Clara Kluger, Kiel University

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Blenckner, Stockholm Resilience Center

Prof. Dr. Ute Hentschel Humeida, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel

Prof. Dr. Ruth Schmitz-Streit, Kiel University

In a nutshell

What: Workshop “Towards a Healthy Ocean for All and Beyond”

When: 13.11.2023, 2:00 - 3:30 pm

Where: online, To the event: https://ditto.geomar.de/satellite_events.html

About the UN Ocean Decade

The UN Ocean Decade is a ten-year global campaign, starting in 2021, for healthy, sustainably used and protected oceans. The aim is to work in international cooperation with numerous institutions, political decision-makers, scientific partners and individual actors to create the ocean that we need for the future: healthy, full of life, with protected zones, but also a sustainably used economic area.

About Kiel Marine Science (KMS)

Kiel Marine Science (KMS), the Center for interdisciplinary marine science at Kiel University, is devoted to excellent and responsible ocean research at the interface between humans and the ocean. The researchers combine their expertise from various natural and social science disciplines to investigate the risks and opportunities that the sea provides for humans. The success of Kiel Marine Science is based on close interdisciplinary cooperation in research and teaching between researchers from seven faculties at Kiel University. Together with actors from outside the scientific community, they work globally and transdisciplinarily on solutions for sustainable use and protection of the ocean.

More information:

About the Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO)

About the satellite event of the DITTO-conference

About the project Beyond One Ocean Health (B1OH)

About the project Beyond One Ocean Health (B1OH) at KMS

About the project Beyond One Ocean Health (B1OH) at CeOS

Scientific Contact (B1OH):

Prof. Dr. Marie-Catherine Riekhof

Director Center for Ocean and Society (CeOS)

Kiel Marine Science (KMS)

Kiel University

E-mail: mcriekhof@ae.uni-kiel.de

Scientific Contact (DITTO):

Prof. Dr. Martin Visbeck

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

E-mail: mvisbeck@geomar.de