Plymouth host the Kick-Off meeting of Sea Change Project! Sea Change will run for three years and involves 17 partners from nine countries across Europe. From 12-14 May 2015, the project’s partners met in Plymouth to discuss strategies for bringing about a fundamental “Sea Change” in the way European citizens view their relationship with the sea.
Sea Change will move to bring about real actions using behavioural and social change methodologies. Building upon the latest social research on citizen and stakeholder attitudes, perceptions and values, the Sea Change partnership will design and implement mobilisation activities focused on education, community, governance actors and directly targeted at citizens.
Sea Change Coordinator Jon Parr, from the Marine Biological Association (UK), said: “This kick off meeting felt like the start of a new and exciting chapter in how we, as European citizens, view our seas and their importance in our daily lives. I hope it is a Sea Change moment! We have quite an ambitious programme ahead of us and it was encouraging to see that all of the Sea Change partners were ready to rise to the challenges, including linking into the other relevant initiatives around us.”

Overall, the meeting was a success, with the partnership eager to begin work immediately, particularly on establishing the foundations for strong and robust strategies and campaigns to be used within the project. The Sea Change International Advisory Group is meeting in Lisbon in June as part of “Blue Week” and will be participating in a transatlantic Ocean Literacy workshop where a number of European, US and Canadian experts will give their advice on the project and the way ahead.
The Sea Change website will be coming soon at www.seachangeproject.eu.