Welcome to The Blue Sustainability and Society Initiative (BSSI)

Founded in 2025, BSSI addresses a fundamental question: how do oceans shape our lives, our cultures, and our values, and how might these perspectives help us imagine more sustainable futures? In a time of rising sea levels, overfishing, biodiversity loss, and cultural upheaval, issues around ocean conservation are not only scientific or economic but also cultural.

BSSI seeks to explore this cultural dimension by bringing historians and social scientists together with policy makers, museum curators, and podcasters to trace past and present understandings of the sea and its resources across diverse societies.

It frames historical and current practices, from traditional fishing and trade to modern marine conservation, as an inherently human story, offering new entry points for thinking about oceans and sustainability beyond the confines of environmental science and economic analysis.