The Ocean Court

The Ocean Court (TOC) is a project that aims to defend the Ocean. This project will be implemented in Lagos, a city with a community of more than 35000 people, widely dependent on the ocean. However, there’s a big gap in terms of ocean literacy within the community. TOC aims to narrow this gap. The strategy of TOC is to reach students of different ages as a main target, while reaching indirect targets as their teachers and all school community and also fishermen and touristic companies that are part of students’ circles. TOC will involve me as the Ocean Advocate, who, with other team members, will be responsible for identifying problems and raising questions to the students. Students will be challenged to present solutions after reflecting and discussing with their families and friends. This process will make them Ocean Judges and will empower them to nominate indirect targets as Ocean Defenders. The activities will involve: awareness-raising actions such as 1.talks, 2.beach clean-ups; 3.activities with more than 500 kids/year; 4.activities with teens; 5.discussion forums with professionals 5.1.fishermen, fishmongers and 5.2.workers from touristic companies. This project will last 3 years and the first 3 activities have already started, being performed by Lagos Science Centre. The Centre would be the main contributor for the Project. Also, the City Hall and the Docapesca Lagos (entity responsible for operating the fishing port) will contribute to the success of TOC.