Love to Protect: Ocean Literacy in the Mediterranean
Renowned oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau famously said: “We protect what we love, and we love what we know.” Yet in the Mediterranean true ocean literacy remains surprisingly limited. The sea is omnipresent in myth, memory, and daily life, but not in knowledge or action. Against a backdrop of plastic pollution, overfishing, invasive species and climate-driven change, this gap between cultural familiarity and ecological understanding has become a structural obstacle to protecting marine biodiversity.
In this landscape, Laura Khatib, co-founder of Guardians of the Blue in Byblos, Lebanon, has emerged as one of the region’s most compelling young voices. With a background in development economics and a lifelong emotional connection to the sea, she has built an NGO that blends ocean literacy, community mobilisation, citizen science, marine biodiversity documentation, and creative engagement, from school workshops and scientific diving to jewellery made from invasive species. Through this work, she is cultivating a new Mediterranean ocean culture rooted in knowledge, agency, and local pride.
During the Med Dialogues +2030 conference organised by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Laura shared the story of her journey, the philosophy behind her grassroots approach, and the challenges and opportunities facing ocean literacy across the basin.
