BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Global Change and the Future Ocean
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1636803
This article is part of the Research TopicThe UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030): The Key Role of SDGs 13 and 14 for the Success of the InitiativeView all 3 articles
Reframing Jellyfish Perception From "Enemies" to "Helpers" through Ocean Literacy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
- 2Programa de Doctorat de Ciències del Mar, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona (UB),, Barcelona, Spain
- 3Institute of Environment and Marine Science Research, Universidad Católica de Valencia (IMEDMAR-UCV), C. Guillem de Castro, 94, 46001, Valencia, Spain
- 4Programa de Doctorat de Ciències del Mar, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
- 5Escola Galí Bellesguard (EGB), Barcelona, Spain
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Despite covering three-quarters of Earth's surface and comprising 99% of its habitable space, the ocean remains underrepresented in formal education, contributing to widespread Ocean Literacy (OL) deficits. Jellyfish -among the earliest metazoans -inhabit all ocean basins and play vital ecological roles. Yet, they are often misrepresented and negatively perceived due to the impacts of jellyfish blooms -phenomena often linked to anthropogenic pressures -on human activities. These blooms not only have ecological consequences but also reflect a broader disconnect between society and the ocean, highlighting the need to promote awareness and foster sustainable behaviors. To help address this gap, a marine research group developed an initiative introducing OL concepts using jellyfish as a flagship species in the context of global change. In collaboration with educators, primary school teachers and students from Catalonia and Asturias (Spain), jellyfish-centered educational interventions were co-developed and tested, including teacher training, classroom implementation and open-access educational resources. Pre-and post-intervention assessments of students and teachers revealed significant improvements in marine knowledge and the development of sustainable behaviors. OL tests revealed similar misconceptions and knowledge gaps in both regions, Eliminado: 3997 35 Eliminado: (1040 intro + (170 + 327 + 233 Methods) + 36 (391+94+566 Results) + (561+615 Discussion) …
Keywords: global change, Environmental Education, perception change, coastal management, scientific education, gelatinous zooplankton, Scyphozoa, SDG 14: Life below water our planet's Earth's on human activities
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Salazar, Marambio, Ballesteros, Vendrell-Simón and Gili. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Janire Salazar, Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
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