Welcome to Words in mOcean: a website where scientists and non-scientists can publish blogs on marine science.

With your help, I want to share my passion for the ocean. Aside from their aesthetic beauty and recreational utility, our oceans provide the air we breath, the water we drink, and a bountiful supply of food; they also regulate the Earth’s climate and in the future we will no doubt rely on them to provide a wide range of sustainable energy technologies – from algal biofuels, to wave and tidal power. However, our oceans are also under threat: they are warming, becoming more stratified, more polluted, and more acidic. They are also being over-fished on an enormous scale – a problem not only for our fish and chip shops, but also for the normal functioning of diverse, healthy oceanic ecosystems.

So, whether you are a member of the public with an interest in the ocean, a PhD or masters student wishing to blog about your project, or an academic wishing to communicate your research to the public, I challenge you to educate, to inform, and to inspire with your marine-themed blog posts.

David Aldridge (follow me on twitter: @D_Aldridge)

David Aldridge has a PhD in Marine Science from The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. He is now planning his escape from academia. He is the founder and editor of Words in mOcean.