Ocean Literacy and Stewardship

Many communities remain unaware of the valuable marine resources of the area and those who depend upon them. To address this lack of knowledge, SGEP Advisor Carrie Culver developed two youth “academies” in collaboration with the UC Office of the President, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Ventura County 4-H program, which was modeled after the latter’s Agriculture Academy. The “Fisheries Journalism Academy” and the “Marine Resources Journalism Academy” were intensive full-day, two-week courses that resulted in 12-page supplemental newspapers produced by the academy students. These supplemental newspapers—“Fish on Your Dish” and “Current Times: Treasures of our Local Ocean”—were distributed through the Ventura Star Press and to area public school teachers, marine education programs and summer library reading programs, with each newspaper targeting more than 200,000 people. In addition to the youth academies, Culver teamed up with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Sustainable Seafood Program to produce a seafood poster to further educate the public about the commercial fishing resources of the Santa Barbara Channel region.