Impact

Ocean of Change

Ocean of Change is a movement to create new waves in Marine Conservation. Panjim, the capital city of Goa has a diverse marine environment around it. From a bordering river to mangrove forests, pristine beaches and an offshore coral reef. Yet, most of the citizens and tourists alike are oblivious to the diversity of marine life in the state. Goa is one of India's top Beach Tourism destinations with over 27 lakh tourists flocking to the tiny coastal state every year. The goal of Ocean of Change was to incite curiousity and intrigue people with the wonders of the ocean and then help them realise their role in protecting it. 


The project team has worked with a dive company in cleaning the coral reef from beer bottles and other garbage, as well as held walks through the mangrove forests. The latest endeavours are creating an audiobook on the Smooth Coated Otter, a rare and beautiful feature of Panjims Backwaters as well as work with WWF Goa on their socio-economic surveys on the Conservation of the Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphin. The overall objective is to inculcate a sense of pride in the marine environments and move people to respect them. This was done by increasing the number of clean-up dives on the coral reef, taking students into Mangrove forests and having regular talks in schools on the importance of marine conservation. By the end of this project, the hub hoped to build a network of students, citizens, researchers, conservationists, governmental and non-governmental bodies to move towards a marine conservation program for the state.