EDUCATION IN ÔNO-TAKEÕ MARINE RESERVES

Most educational approaches to the sea concentrate on similarities and connections with previous experience. But the sea is different, very different. The real educational value of marine life, habitats and processes comes from the contrast these offer to general experience on land. Many of our basic beliefs turn out to be merely Ôterrestrial predudiceÕ. The shock and surprise of realising this provides a special level of interest and a chance to re-examine deeply-held attitudes. One large difference is that the sea is much more ÔnaturalÕ than the land. In most countries, humans have co-evolved with other terrestrial life for so long that the idea of ÔnaturalÕ is almost meaningless- for land habitats. In the sea, however, ÔnaturalÕ processes (meaning without any human influence) still dominate in most circumstances. Humans have made changes in the sea, but these are small and local compared to the changes on land. Unfortunately many ÔeducationalÕ approaches to the sea concentrate on human activities, particularly the errors, rather than the natural processes and life. ÔNo-takeÕ marine reserves are designed to maintain in full the natural life and processes in the sea. Everything about them centres on this. All human activities (othe