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3 min read

There is a growing body of research, suggesting that ‘blue spaces‘ (the ocean, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds) may have been underestimated in their benefits to human health wellbeing.

Proximity and access to water have long been central to human culture and accordingly deliver countless societal benefits. Over 200 million people live on Europe’s coastline, and aquatic environments are the top recreational destination in the region.

The European Centre for Environment and Human Health in Exeter are pioneering work in this field with Blue Health an EU Horizon 2020 collaborative programme to uncover just how blue spaces in towns and cities impact human health and wellbeing. Recent findings from the group have found that, in England, we make 271 million coastal visits annually across the population spectrum and that the coast may play an important role in reducing activity inequalities.

The coast has also been described as a therapeutic landscape, catering for a variety of therapeutic needs and helping us to find solace, stillness and rehabilitation.  In a 2010 study on older adults in Vancouver, Canada, blue space was also found to influence participants’ perceived physical, mental, and social health. Even in urban settings, blue spaces have been shown to provide respite from everyday stresses.

  Furthermore, Attention Restoration Theory (ART) hypothesises that natural settings can also enhance mental functioning and exposure to natural environments has been found to help with stress recovery

Combining visual and auditory natural stimuli (for example the sound of ocean waves and an image of the shoreline) has also been found to be beneficial in reducing pain, owing to the distracting and calming properties of these stimuli.

Spending time around blue spaces, wherever these might be, may, therefore, help with our ability to function in our everyday lives allowing us to focus and restore our attention.

With research mounting to support the wider value of the ocean to human health and wellbeing, there is an emerging call to consider this often overlooked value in planning and policymaking.

Find more information on the European Centre for Environment and Human Health’s Blue Health work here https://bluehealth2020.eu/ 

Following  a roundtable debate at Prospect’s offices on 31st May 2017, prospect magazine published this article on the perception that the ocean is ‘too big to fail’.

“If you put a price on the environment, it suggests that it can be bought or sold or even worse that having a fistful of notes in your hand is somehow equivalent to having an ancient woodland, a reef, a kelp forest or a saltmarsh teeming with birdlife.”

LAB member and Marine Conservation Society Education and Engagement Manager, Sue Ranger describes how value underscores all that we do in the Marine CoLAB here.

On the 1st of March 2017, our funder The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation convened a diverse range of the marine sector, both within the UK and further afield to celebrate the ocean and work together to discover new ways of communicating its value.

The event also saw the launch of new research by the FrameWorks Institute, commissioned by The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on public perception of marine conservation issues and how we might better frame these issues.

The day and its participatory sessions were designed and facilitated by FoAM’s Director, Maja Kuzmanovic.  You can find FoAM’s summary of the day here.