Ocean Policy Research Blog

This blog post was originally uploaded in
Japanese to OPRI's blog on February 8th, 2017.
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The Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa
Peace Foundation(OPRI-SPF) began the development
of a new marine educational grant called the
Ocean Education Pioneer School Program (link
in Japanese) jointly with The Nippon Foundation
and the University of Tokyo Ocean Alliance's
Research Center for Marine Education (RCME)
in 2016.

In its first year, 64 schools (elementary schools,
junior and senior high schools and schools for
special needs education) from 28 prefectures from
Hokkaido to Okinawa participated. Each school
provided a draft curriculum on educational topics
pertaining to oceans when they applied for the
funding. There were various kinds of programs:
programs applicable for any location in Japan −
such as disaster prevention, driftage research,
fishing port observation, fish tasting, and tideland
observation− to programs which utilize local
features − such as a salmon study in the northern
region, community collaborated eelgrass
reproduction activity, traditional salt-making,
creation of a squid culture bed using both land and
sea,and a drive-fishing experience using a traditional
fishing boat used near coral reefs called a “sabani.”

From simply viewing the list of the programs, I could
not help but realize that the Japanese islands are
actually quite varied and extensive. Some members
from OPRI-SPF visited several elementary schools
and observed their activities. It was impressive
when the children were sharing stories about the
ecology of the crabs they had caught during their
beach education class and the name of the coral
they were growing in a tank. A teacher told us that
a child who was normally quiet and reserved in the
classroom showed outstanding leadership in the
tideland observation.

Part of the activities' results was presented at the
4th National Ocean Education Summit “New Trends
in Ocean Education” hosted by the RCME and The
Nippon Foundation at the University of Tokyo on
Feb. 5, 2017.Three hundred and sixty people
attended from institutions nationwide, including
boards of education, inland schools, and social
education facilities. The venue was surrounded by an
air of excitement.

There were 23 poster presentations from 13 pioneer
schools. Students of elementary and junior high
schools from the Tokyo metropolitan area and
remote places such as Hironocho (Iwate Prefecture),
Kesennuma City (Miyagi Prefecture)
and Nachikatsuuracho (Wakayama Prefecture)
participated in the summit. They took their
presentations very earnestly. There were occasions
when senior high school students were engaged in
high-level heated discussions with university
professors or students from different schools, and
I could see that the summit was an important
meeting place for them.

In addition, we spoke with enthusiastic teachers
from Ishikawa Prefecture and Minami-Satsuma City
of Kagoshima Prefecture who traveled on the very
first Shinkansen bullet train of the day, and I was
overwhelmed to realize that ocean education is so
widespread from one enthusiastic person to another.
Among the Pioneer Schools, there have been
instances where two schools which are located
geographically quite far apart have made contact,
exchanged information and lent a helping hand in
developing each other’s programs.
Moreover, Pioneer School Program activities are now
starting to involve their surrounding areas, to
become wider social education programs.
Great potential is expected.


These days a new trend in ocean education is
definitely beginning to become apparent.
However, as discussions progress at the Pioneer
School meetings, we often return to the main
subject of “what is ocean education in the first
place?” The image people have of the ocean varies
depending on the person. The concept of the
ocean is extremely broad. So I sometimes wonder
myself what exactly does ocean education signify?

I come from an earth science background, and I
teach geography and biotic life history to university
students. My lecture starts from the time when
there was no ocean on the Earth. The dramatic
evolutionary changes which have affected Earth and
its ecosystems over 4 billion years are impressive.
When I ask my students which topic they remember
the most, the top answer is “the movement of life
from ocean to land.” They said that they were
particularly moved when they found the connection
between ancient creatures and themselves. Plants,
insects and animals came one after the other to the
land from the sea; but at that time, our distant
ancestors also adapted their bodies in order to
overcome many obstacles so as to survive on land.
However, they never completely relinquished the
environment of the ocean they had been living in
before. Four-legged animals came to land with
an ocean component inside their bodies.

The ocean that land animals have inside their bodies
is “bones.” The calcium ion plays an important role
as an intercellular signalling substance which
controls muscle contraction and emission of
physiologically active substances. Calcium is stored
in this ocean of bones in preparation for its shortage.
Also, the ion concentration in human cells reflects
the ion concentration in the Cambrian ocean, and
the ion concentration in our blood reflects the ion
concentration in the ocean. In the 4.6 billion years of
Earth’s history, the ion concentration of seawater has
gone through several large-scale changes. Calcium
ion concentration dramatically increased immediately
before the Cambrian period 550 million years ago.
The expansion rate of the mid-ocean ridge is
considered to be the cause*. Organisms, armed
with calcium carbonate shells which they made
using abundant materials, have emerged.
The chemical composition of seawater in each era
in Earth’s history is imprinted and reflected in the
bodies of multicellular animals.

Considering this, there is no need for us to cry,
“Let’s live with the ocean!” Our lives have been
intertwined with the ocean since long ago.
However, the sense of having the ocean inside our
bodies has been lost in those of us who live in the
modern age. This has caused the connection with
the ocean environment to become distant and
non-contiguous. Astronauts add Earth environmental
components into their space suits before flying into
outer space. We are like astronauts who have stayed
in outer space too long and have forgotten the
reason for wearing the space suits. To know the
ocean is to know ourselves. In what class at school
can we regain this feeling? I hope that children can
find it on their own without relying on ocean
education as part of a social studies** unit and can
learn to value natural science, art and culture.

Nobuko Nakamura

Research Fellow,
Ocean Policy Studies Division/
Ocean Education Division


* The period of rapid expansion of the mid-ocean
ridge signifies the period of increased production
of oceanic plate composed of basalt. This is
equivalent to large-scale volcanic activities and the
warm period. At this time, the calcium (Ca) released
due to the quality change of basalt and the
magnesium (Mg) uptake from the seawater increase,
and the Mg/Ca ratio in the seawater decreased.
(Stanley 2006)

** In the report on the revision of the curriculum
guidelines by the Central Education Council of the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology in December 2016, it says that “(We will)
review the necessary part of the curriculum related
to issues such as... understanding the ocean and
national land territories” within “Social Studies,
Geography and Civics.”

Changes in Ocean’s Chemical Composition (Ratio of
Calcium [Ca] and Magnesium [Mg] through
Phanerozoic Eon)

There are two kinds of crystal structures in
calcium carbonate: calcite and aragonite.
The crystal structure of the shells calcified
organisms make differs depending upon
the time period.

This blog post was originally posted in Japanese
to OPRI's blog on November 9, 2016.
---

Since 1992, The Nippon Foundation and the Ocean
Policy Research Foundation (now the Ocean Policy
Research Institute) have been engaged in an
international research project, mainly in Japan,
Russia, and Norway, to open a Northern Sea Route,
and have been looking for opportunities to raise
awareness of this future passage through the Arctic
Ocean. Conducting maritime industry research in
the Arctic Ocean includes research in a wide range
of fields, including everything from planetary science
and marine ice engineering to maritime distribution
trends, maritime law, international law, the Arctic
Council, domestic laws in coastal countries,
Classification Society regulations, the insurance
industry, and nuclear vessel reactors.

Today, I would like to touch on one topic relevant to
nuclear vessel reactors and related to the Chernobyl
and Fukushima nuclear disasters, which were
mentioned at the 5th International Expert
Symposium in Fukushima on Radiation and Health.
This symposium was held from September 26-27,
2016, hosted by The Nippon Foundation as part of
its work related to the Fukushima disaster.

In Hokkaido, polar lows and other polar weather
phenomena are causing problems for residents,
but various substances of Siberian origin travel
great distances on the prevailing westerly winds,
sometimes making their way into the trees of
Hokkaido. On April 26, 1986, the radioactive
substance strontium 90 emanated from the No. 4
reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant due to
the meltdown of its core. By chance, after
conducting growth ring analysis of an elm tree that
had fallen when Hokkaido was struck by a typhoon,
we learned from trace amounts detected in the ring
corresponding to 1986 that strontium 90 from the
Chernobyl disaster had reached Hokkaido.
On the other hand, radioactive material resulting
from the core meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, 2011 reached
Northern Europe, which naturally means that this
incident, with its consequent impact on the
atmosphere, has become a global problem.

Japan is the only country to have suffered the effects
of atomic bombs, but it is strange that the national
government is not raising awareness about the
nuclear disaster among its people through the
sharing of appropriate documents with local
governments. These documents should contain
information on issues that we should have learned
from the nuclear disaster, starting from the origins of
the disaster, and including information on the
aftereffects of nuclear radiation and how to prevent
further contamination. Nuclear power companies,
which are said to be maliciously hiding this
information, may be exerting significant influence to
keep this information suppressed, but now, after the
government has decided to approve atomic energy,
I think it is time to raise awareness on these issues.
While I cannot say that the following articles fall into
the category of awareness-raising literature on these
issues, I do recommend that my readers have a look
at them.

- AV Yablokov, et. al. (Supervising Translator Jun
Hoshikawa), “Chernobyl: Consequences of the
Catastrophe for People and the Environment,”
Iwanami Shoten, 2013.

- Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board,
“Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear
Accident for Improving Safety of U.S. Nuclear
Plants; Phase 1 and 2,”
The National Academies Press, 2016.