What can you do?

• Advocate for the full yearly implementation of the Integrated Monitoring Program.
• Adopt an integrative approach in your research by having regular meetings with researchers in other fields of expertise. 
• Clearly communicate the results of your research. Your results will be all the more useful if they can be easily understood by decision-makers and the general public. In order to do so, you might want to engage with the various professionals and organizations that communicate science.
• Try to understand what motivates citizens and decision makers by engaging with researchers in human sciences (psychologists, sociologists). This may allow you to prompt them to take action towards a sustainable sea.  
• Clearly establish priorities when proposing to put in place measures for better management of the marine environment.
• Involve the public in citizen science activities: listen to their needs and build together with them a project to get them involved in the entire process.

• Enable yearly implementation of Integrated Monitoring Program.
• Participate to meetings related to planning of the sea uses and make sure long terms benefits of ecosystems are duly taken into account.
• Establish regular contacts with scientists in order to be updated with the research results relevant for your professional activity.
• Involve all relevant stakeholders to the meetings you organize: from public and private sectors as well as from the academics, civil society and local citizens, so to have an integrated view of all the stakes and issues.
• Together with the stakeholders, clearly establish which stakes need to be addressed in priority. Taking their needs and wishes into account when you are taking decisions might truly lead to a positive change.
• Support adoption and enforcement of legal documents ensuring minimizing human impacts to the marine environment, such as legal instruments tackling marine litter.
• Launch awareness-raising campaigns for the preservation of marine environment.
• Promote prevention measures and circular economy opportunities.
• Support scientific-research projects addressing impact on the marine ecosystem.

• Reduce, re-use and recycle solid waste. Collect and return with the garbage generated during the day, including the organic ones, in order not to litter the landscape and affect the other coast users.
• Consider the impacts on the environment you don’t see. Just because it’s not visible does not mean it doesn’t exist.
• Learn about the environmental regulations in the place you are staying. If you are visiting a protected area, remember that rules are here to preserve places and species of great ecological value.
• Get involved in citizen science activities and design together with the scientists your own scientific project. Your knowledge and your thoughts are valuable, that’s why we want to hear of them. If you wish to join such an initiative, you can visit the new SeaWatcher application for the collection of observations of marine litter, invasive and protected species.

When boating

• Don’t drop anchor on seagrass meadows or on any place of high value biodiversity.
• Use a holding tank for sewerage to avoid polluting water and dispose of wastes properly. Make use of the pump out facilities where they are available.
• Remove all plastic packaging before you take material on board. Plastic bags are dangerous for the sea animals when swallowed as they can suffocate them or cause blockage in their intestines.

When fishing

• Return undersized or unwanted fish in the sea as soon as possible. Always handle fish with wet hands so you don’t rub the protective slime off scales.
• Take back your old fishing lines and nets on land as they can kill fish, marine mammals, birds and reptiles if you leave them in the sea.