“Fins into the water - Mediterranean Sea Literacy into practice”

The overall aim of the project was to spread ocean literacy in general, and more specifically Mediterranean Sea Literacy awareness for the CTM users and providers and to the general public to adva...

The overall aim of the project was to spread ocean literacy in general, and more specifically Mediterranean Sea Literacy awareness for the CTM users and providers and to the general public to advance understanding and behavioural changes related to coastal tourism. Ocean literacy and its 7 principles are an already well-known terms, however there is a lack of understanding and awareness of the MSL principles, in spite of the fact that the region and sea is one of the most fragile regions on the world, experiencing several pressures, mostly coming from the tourism sector. The project aimed at providing up-to-date knowledge, tools and information to the target groups and to the general public in all the languages of the Med, because everything starts with education. These materials are easily understandable, engaging but also in-depth and very informative. Building on these materials, the project aimed to visit target group members in person to implement all the materials and enhance the understanding of the MSL principles. Therefore the project created a network of stakeholders in the watersport sector who were made aware of the environmental problems and now have the knowledge to transfer this information to their clients.

The Fins into the Water project aimed at enhancing behavioural changes in the minds of the CTM users and providers and spread ocean literacy in the region with the following activities: - Translate the Mediterranean Sea Literacy (MSL) guidebook that is built on the 7 ocean literacy principles tailor made for the Med into all Mediterranean languages, - Gather resources, teaching materials and best practices related to ocean literacy in the region that can be used by the target group members and create an easily accessible database for the public, - Launch a Resource map with these resources that interactively and visually shows the different materials divided by water sports and regions, - Develop brief but engaging visual materials such as infographics and videos explaining the MSL principles, - Implementation and Dissemination actions of in-person visits to water sport centres, aquariums, NGOs where partners carried out on-the-spot trainings for CTM users and providers and shared with them the project materials, - Local and international actions where in-person events shared results, - Final webinar served as a closing event for the project to disseminate all materials to the target groups - Online dissemination on social media

The Fins into the Water project has gathered the following outputs and results: - MSL brochure in all the Mediterranean languages (Spanish, Catalan,French, Italian, Greek, Croatian, Turk, Hebrew and Arabic) plus Maltese as an additional language. However, the design of the Turk, Hebrew and Maltese versions is still pending. - 150 resources, teaching materials in sea literacy have been collected by partners and uploaded to the Database and Resource Map, - 113 Organizations, water sport centres have been reached out mostly in person to disseminate project materials, and raise awareness on the topic and advocate for individual and collective actions, - 7 local events were carried out in person to engage mostly local communities such as school children, youth, tourists, water sport enthusiasts, scientists etc. and promote sea literacy, - A final online webinar available for anybody interested to learn about the Med, where 92 registered and 45 attended from all over the world, - Participation in a final event by organizing a workshop at the EMSEA Annual Conference with participation of 15 people from different disciplines to brainstorm on marine issues and how their solutions can be implemented in water sport centres.