The general populace—those who have not been lucky enough to become oceanographers and marine biologists—form the focus of any outreach and public understanding program we undertake. But why should we expend time and energy in educating the public when we have our own students to look after and research to do? A number of my colleagues see any form of public engagement as a bit of a nuisance and not really an important part of our routine work. With some individuals, that is possibly a good thing, but in general, public outreach should be high on everyone’s agenda. We need to encourage the best young minds into our science if it is to have a future. The “public” are also the voters who put pressure on politicians to give financial and legislative support to what we do. They have a right, as taxpayers, to know what goes on in our largely publicly funded world.


Boxall, S. 2010. The oceanography classroom: A public education. Oceanography 23(2):130–132, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2010.56.

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