También este año, el festival medioambiental de Bruselas ofreció una buena oportunidad para transmitir el mensaje del Día Mundial del Océano. El 2 de junio de 2024, en el espacioso parque Tour & Taxis de Bruselas, donde fue antaño la estación ferroviaria de mercancías más grande de Europa, familias y visitantes de los alrededores de Schaerbeek acudieron en masa a las tiendas de actividades y a los puestos de comida, sin correr ningún riesgo de hacinamiento. Mundus maris recibió a los visitantes en la Carpa nº 17 durante todo el día.

The core message to the many visitors at our tent was about appreciating the importance of the ocean for our lives, even if we do not live on the coast. As ocean literacy is not a significant topic in ordinary curricula in Belgium – or in Europe for that matter – celebration of the day is all the more important to start filling the gap. Indeed, visitors stopped happily to explore our demonstration of ocean acidification on the calcareous shells of molluscs, corals and other ocean dwellers and engage in discussions about how to collaborate to protect the ocean and ourselves more effectively. The conversations led to a number of new subscribers to our monthly newsletter and suggestions for collaboration after the event.

And, of course, at a festival, never to neglect the playfulness of testing one’s ocean knowledge with the well-tested Ocean Game or exploring the minimum reproductive size of fish with the fish ruler and the FishBase Guide app. The weather remained stable throughout the day, in the afternoon the sun made a showing thus adding to the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. The map of the event space is here and the pictures below capture moments of visitor interaction throughout the day. All pictures of Mundus maris asbl.