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Welcome to World Ocean Radio…
I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory.
The ocean is wide, deep, dynamic, and essential to every aspect of our lives. To understand it, to immerse ourselves in it, is an opportunity not available to us all. For those who desire an immersive experience, or wish to encounter species newly discovered or not otherwise displayed in a traditional aquarium setting, let me begin this year by introducing World Ocean Explorer: a place for learning about the vast diversity and mystery of the ocean world, a virtual tool for understanding ocean systems, and for experience of what it is that the ocean provides for the benefit of us all..
There was a time when the best way to encounter the wonders of the sea was to visit an aquarium. These institutions have played an important role in ocean conservation and education throughout our history. They help us understand ocean processes, and to use on-sight experiences to stimulate and explain the vast ocean world. However, only 11% of the world population has ever visited an aquarium, and global public awareness of the ocean and ocean issues has not advanced much over the last decade. What lies beyond the traditional aquarium setting? What tools do we have to excite young people about ocean systems and the importance of ocean health? How do we promote enthusiasm for knowledge of the ocean world? What if the games we play can teach us the science of the ocean world? What if education were as exciting as online gaming?
Enter World Ocean Explorer: a game-based learning environment designed to promote ocean literacy and excitement for ocean exploration amongst students ages 10 and up worldwide. Explorer uses the power of game-based learning to transform education both in and out of the classroom and to encourage ocean literacy among students and educators to more fully explore the influence and importance of the ocean and our relationship to it.
To be made available in classrooms around the world at no cost to students, teachers or educational institutions, Explorer is a thoughtfully imagined and rendered aquarium environment, in the future to include a virtual remotely-operated submersible that students can board for simulated journeys to a variety of ocean locales including the deep sea, the coastal zone, a coral reef, or a maritime cultural tradition. Explorer opens doors to the infinite possibilities associated with ocean science and exploration! It will encourage users to take self-explored or guided tours through ocean exhibits within the aquarium, to learn about a variety of marine species, to connect educators with content, curriculum, teaching modules, goal-oriented activities, and to teach students about habitat, chemistry, geography, weather, climate, oceanography, and much more. The goal of Explorer is to propel students toward further ocean exploration and to promote ocean literacy worldwide.
Inside the aquarium environment will be a number of species tanks. As users interact with the tanks they can choose to learn about invertebrates, marine mammals, reptiles, sea birds, and more. Each species is part of a searchable database complete with 3d models; information and diagrams related to anatomy; habitat, range and migration maps; in-depth descriptions; diet; threats; conservation efforts; resources and more.
Each environmental locale will be populated with a wide variety of plant and animal species, both common and rarely seen. Terrain will be expansive and complex and will contain a wide range of geological and mineralogical features such as caves, canyons, and hydrothermal vents. Environments will reflect real-world physical and chemical properties of the ocean such as pressure, temperature, and salinity.
World Ocean Explorer does not substitute the experience of being near the ocean, nor does it supplant the physical scale of a real aquarium space. But it will have no barrier to entry, no ticket price, no distance to travel. The intent is to drive ocean literacy; to provide a full spectrum of marine science information, to be a resource for formal and informal teaching and learning, to suggest an environment, immediate and effective, as wide, deep and dynamic as the ocean itself. It will be a field trip for students without having to leave the classroom!
I invite you to join the swim! Explorer will be your aquarium, your expedition, your science, your experience, and your realization of the ocean as the most impactful natural environment on earth. We urge you to join us: together as world ocean aquanauts, we can share the wisdom, promise, and magic of the ocean and its connection to us all. To visit World Ocean Explorer, go to worldoceanexplorer.org.
We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
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