Ulrich Jordan, Heike Rippe

MARE NOSTRUM: our European Seas / unsere Europäischen Meere

A COMENIUS I PROJECT FOR SCHOOLS      2002-2005

 
1) Introduction:

Since Roman times the sea has either isolated European people or linked them. For the able seafarer it has been an undestructable pathway, for others it has been a frightening barrier one did not dare to cross.

European merchants have been using the sea for long distance trade since the middle ages and today our supply of energy is brought to us by an endless chain of tankers transporting crude oil to European refineries.

In one way or another we are all connected with the sea and we are all connected by the sea. What is going on there will affect us sooner or later. Whatever changes these waters will in turn affect us and our European neighbours.

Examples of this interdependency we can almost daily find in the media: a new oilspill in French coastal waters, declining stocks of fish in the North Sea ruining the fishing industry, radioactive waste in British waters, rising water temperatures affecting marine life, large scale garbage dumping threatening seabirds and spoiling beaches from Cyprus to Norway, toxic bacteria affecting commercial mussle banks and finally getting into the food chain, these are only some of the problems which almost always have local reasons but nevertheless affect several if not all the adjacent European countries.

It is therefore necessary that we look at these oceans and seas from a different perspective. We should learn to consider them as a unit that has to be looked at and dealt with as one body which is of great importance to all of us. We should learn to look at these waters from a European point of view and find out what we are doing with them and what we should be doing with them.

2) project description:

MARE NOSTRUM :OUR EUROPEAN SEAS is a project about the environment in the course of which students of different states of the EU investigate the present state and the development of the European seas and coastal waters.

Students of different age groups research marine waters of the EU accessible to them and according to their school´s situation and on the basis of their national or regional school curriculum. The project work focusses on the ecological condition and the development of their own sea or coastal water and on its living and material ressources. The project intends to create an awareness of the fact that these waters are in fact one ecological system, which is of great importance for all people living near European coastal waters.

Getting to know the fundamental proposals and intentions of the Agenda 21, especially those aiming at the economical use and development of such regions is one of the major aims of this project.

The intentions and proposals, outlined and accurately defined in chapter 17, paragraph a-g of the Agenda 21, are the main cornerstones and reference points of the student´s activities at the very site or region next to their school. These activities will concentrate on marine ecology, protection of marine invironments and the sustainable use and development of such areas.

In the course of the project we intend to show, that local impacts on European waters will indeed affect most if not all the other seas and coastal waters of the EU. It is expected that the participating students and teachers will consequently develop an awareness of a common European resposiblity for the conditions of these waters. As a supplementary activity aiming at the same objective we will contact local authorities and local organisations involved in executing or promoting activities on the basis of Agenda 21.

Since our Europaen seas are not only subject to our own destructive influences we must also look at nations situated at the other shores and consider their activities. If we seriously intend to follow the proposals of Agenda 21 we first of all have to agree on a common point of view which may then result in propositions, aims and guidelined activities. To this end also we will to work.

The successful cooperation with our partner-schools and personal relations between our teachers will promote our activities in a very substantial way. It was after all this experience in a prevoius Comenius project which led to the present development of a new Comenius project.

Extensive use of modern telecommunication media available to our partner-schools will form the basis of our project communication and for all documentations. Reports and pictures of the project work at each individual school will be fused into multi-media products which will in turn be published in the internet. To this end participating students will have to write down all their texts and data using word processors and send them via e-mail to the other schools. Pictures should be likewise digitised. If necessary students of Erich Kästner Gesamtschule in Hamburg will create pages in HTML or produce PowerPoint presentations for other partner schools. From experience we know that computer equipment or computer skills are no real problems, it is the dedication of teachers and students to the project that really matters.

We also know from experience that all participating schools have completely different conditions and educational guidelines. We therefore decided to keep the new concept as open as possible to allow the individual teachers to develop their own activities within the common framework of our main objectives: marine ecology, protection of marine environments and sustainable use and development of such areas.

3) Mare Nostrum student activities :

Mare Nostrum student activities during the course of the project: ( still in a draft version) It is essential that students and teachers receive sufficient background information about the aims and guidelines of AGENDA 21 before getting involved in any kind of activity.

A) MARINE ECOLOGY
Excursions to study the ecological system of coastal areas ( i.e. the Waddensea/ Ebro Delta/ Cypriot coast). Focus on: condition of habitats

activity: measuring & collecting data
salinity temperatures
oxygen phosphorus
nitrogen plankton
pollution agents pops (persistant organic pollutants)

activity: observation & documentation
fish/mammals/other marine organism plants ( seaweeds)
beach pollution oil pollution (beaches and seabirds)
driftways of pollutants (currents / wind)
changes of the habitat by building activities (dykes, irrigation project, desalination plants)

Students should take their own measurements, work with their own data, draw their own conclusions on the background of AGENDA 21 guidelines.

B) SUSTAINED USAGE OF LIVING MARINE RESOURCES
Focus on what is being produced and how these products or services are being marketed by local small scale fishing industries and the tourist industry. Excursions could and should include trips on fishing vessels, trips to fishmarkets and processing plants and interviews with representatives of businesses and agencies involved.

activity: observation & documentation:
a) products
- (North Sea) shrimps, cephalopods, mussels, fish, mammals, algae other

b) methods of harvesting:

- type of nets, longline fishing, otherfishfarming, musselfarming

c) resource protection and protection management:
- interviewing local fishermen, local authorities, local politicians,

e) tourism and marinas: impact on marine ecosystems
- data: number of tourists, leisure boats, speed boats, ferries
- areas used / built on / converted
- effects on habitats (improvements/ damages)

As to the question of sustained usage the aquisition of reliable data (apart from any interpretation) is difficult but vital and constitutes an unsolved problem at this stage !

Ulrich Jordan e-mail : u.jordan@umwelt.ecolink.org