Step 1: Start with everyday dependence
Ask students how the ocean affects their lives, including students who live far from the coast.
Ocean Literacy Principle 6
The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected
The ocean affects human life through weather, climate, freshwater, food, transport, resources, livelihoods, culture, and recreation. At the same time, human activities change ocean ecosystems, chemistry, habitats, and the atmosphere.
Guiding question: How does the ocean affect our lives, and how do our choices affect the ocean?
Grades 6–8 conceptual alignment: Adapted from NMEA Ocean Literacy Scope and Sequence under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
What this principle means
The ocean shapes human life and society
People depend on ocean processes, resources, and places in direct and indirect ways, including far from the coast.
The ocean influences weather, climate, and freshwater.
The ocean absorbs, stores, and releases heat. Ocean circulation redistributes heat around the planet, moderating temperatures and influencing weather and climate.
Ocean evaporation drives much of the water cycle. Water that evaporates from the ocean eventually returns as rain or snow, affecting freshwater supplies, agriculture, infrastructure, ecosystems, and human health.
People depend on ocean resources and activities.
People depend on the ocean for food, medicines, materials, energy, shipping, tourism, recreation, and many different livelihoods. Coastal and ocean activities are therefore deeply connected to economies and societies.
Photosynthetic ocean organisms also produce much of the oxygen used by people, connecting human life to microscopic marine organisms.
The ocean is an important part of cultural identity, heritage, inspiration, discovery, and recreation.
The ocean influences where people live
Coasts provide access to resources, transport, work, culture, and recreation, while also exposing communities to ocean hazards.
Coastal communities receive benefits and face natural hazards.
Many people live near the ocean because coasts provide food, transport, employment, recreation, cultural connections, and access to marine resources.
Coastal communities can also be exposed to hurricanes, cyclones, storm surge, flooding, tsunamis, erosion, and sea-level change. Understanding these hazards helps communities prepare, respond, and reduce risk.
Human activities change the ocean
Fishing, development, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions alter ocean habitats, food webs, chemistry, and physical conditions.
Fishing, development, pollution, and other activities alter marine ecosystems.
Fishing and aquaculture, shipping, coastal construction, extraction, pollution, and changes to rivers and wetlands can alter habitats, species populations, food webs, and water quality.
Human activities can also introduce non-native species, change sediment and freshwater flows, generate underwater noise, and move plastics, oil, chemicals, sewage, and other waste into the ocean.
How these activities are managed helps determine whether their effects are relatively sustainable or damaging.
Greenhouse gas emissions warm the ocean and change its chemistry.
Human-driven increases in greenhouse gases contribute to ocean warming. Additional atmospheric carbon dioxide also dissolves in seawater and changes ocean chemistry, including through ocean acidification.
Warming and acidification can affect organisms, habitats, reproduction, shell formation, coral health, species distributions, and ecosystem processes.
People can change ocean outcomes
Individual choices, collective action, scientific evidence, laws, and management all influence the future condition of the ocean.
Laws, management, restoration, and individual choices shape the ocean’s future.
Laws, marine protected areas, fisheries management, pollution reduction, responsible coastal construction, habitat restoration, research, and education can all influence the future condition of the ocean.
Individuals also affect the ocean through what they buy, how they travel, how they use energy, how they dispose of waste, which organizations and policies they support, and what they share with others.
Effective ocean stewardship combines individual choices with community action, scientific evidence, regulation, and cooperation among countries.
Key ideas
- The ocean influences weather, climate, and the water cycle people depend on.
- People use the ocean for food, oxygen, resources, transport, jobs, culture, and recreation.
- The ocean influences where people live and exposes coastal communities to natural hazards.
- Fishing, development, pollution, and other activities change marine ecosystems.
- Human activities contribute to ocean warming and changes in ocean chemistry.
- Laws, management, restoration, research, and individual choices can reduce impacts and support healthy ocean ecosystems.
Teach this principle
Step 2: Connect human uses to ocean ecosystems
Connect food, shipping, employment, culture, recreation, and coastal communities to ocean environments and species.
Step 3: Trace a human impact
Use overfishing, pollution, coastal development, shipping, or climate change to follow how an activity changes ocean habitats, chemistry, or food webs.
Step 4: Compare possible responses
Explore fisheries management, marine protection, restoration, regulation, research, education, or changes in individual and collective behavior.
Why this matters
The ocean and human society continually affect one another. Ocean processes support freshwater, climate, food, livelihoods, culture, and transport, while human activities alter habitats, food webs, chemistry, and physical conditions.
What students should take away
Students should come away understanding that people depend on the ocean wherever they live, human activities can create both benefits and harm, and management and individual choices can change future ocean outcomes.
Classroom prompt: Choose one way people depend on the ocean and one way people change it. How are the two connected?
Teach with Blue Biome
Explore this principle with the platform
WebGIS
Compare overfishing, oil spills, marine reserves, coastal communities, and other mapped layers to see where ocean uses, pressures, hazards, and protection overlap.
Knowledge Graph
Trace how species, habitats, threats, opportunities, and management actions are connected across marine systems.
Cards
Use cards such as Overfishing, Oil Spill, Storm Surge, Ocean Acidification, and Marine Reserve to discuss dependence, impacts, hazards, and possible responses.
Start here
Ecoregion
1. See the whole relationship in one region
Use the Mediterranean Sea to connect coastal settlement, shipping, tourism, fisheries, pollution, climate stress, and management in one place.
Threat
2. Trace dependence and extraction
Use Overfishing to discuss how dependence on ocean food and income can alter populations, food webs, and marine ecosystems.
Opportunity
3. Compare a management choice
Use Marine Reserve to discuss protection, fisheries management, collective action, and long-term ecosystem recovery.
Tool
4. Compare pressures and protection
Use WebGIS to compare where overfishing, oil spills, coastal communities, marine reserves, and other human–ocean connections occur.
Featured examples
Featured Species
Species
European anchovy
European anchovy helps explain this principle because people depend on marine food webs and fisheries for food, jobs, and coastal economies.
Species
Swordfish
Swordfish illustrates how a migratory ocean species becomes part of trade, fisheries management, and debates about sustainable extraction.
Species
Turtlegrass
Turtlegrass helps show that coastal habitats support fisheries, nursery grounds, shoreline stability, and human coastal protection.
Species
Green sea turtle
Green sea turtle helps connect human impacts such as habitat change, warming, and pollution to biodiversity and conservation responsibility.
Featured Ecoregions
Ecoregion
Mediterranean Sea
Distinctive: This semi-enclosed sea is intensely used for shipping, fishing, tourism, and coastal settlement.
Connected to the global system: It helps explain how human uses, climate stress, and pollution can accumulate in a connected marine region.
Ecoregion
Florida Keys
Distinctive: This low-lying coastal system links reefs, mangroves, tourism, fisheries, and storm exposure.
Connected to the global system: It shows how human livelihoods, habitat protection, sea-level risk, and coastal water quality are tightly connected.
Ecoregion
Mesoamerican Reef
Distinctive: This reef system supports fisheries, tourism, biodiversity, and coastal protection across several countries.
Connected to the global system: It helps explain how marine ecosystems support people while also depending on management, habitat care, and climate resilience.
Featured Cards
Threat
Overfishing
Overfishing illustrates the principle by showing how dependence on marine food and income can destabilize food webs when extraction exceeds recovery.
Threat
Oil Spill
Oil Spill illustrates the principle by linking shipping, energy systems, coastal economies, and ecosystem damage.
Threat
Ocean Acidification
Ocean Acidification illustrates the principle by showing how human carbon emissions change ocean chemistry and affect marine organisms.
Opportunity
Marine Reserve
Marine Reserve illustrates the principle by showing that people can also protect habitats and manage ocean use more responsibly.