ABSTRACT
Those who participate in aquatic sports are natural allies for life below water. Ocean sport enthusiasts gain many physical and psychological benefits from interacting with blue spaces. Coveted ocean recreational experiences, however, are vulnerable because of the mounting threats to the ocean mentioned in this chapter. In this chapter, ocean sports are also shown to inspire individual and cooperative actions to meet Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) targets and ensure future generations have healthy oceans in which to swim, surf, paddle, fish, snorkel, dive, and sail. Protecting oceans requires the coordinated efforts of many different stakeholders across many spatial scales. This is why this chapter utilizes the Blue Economy Paradigm for theoretically grounding an understanding of cooperative governance for ensuring oceans to perpetually provide sustainable economic and leisure activities for humanity. The focus then shifts to the many ocean sport organizations that have formed and currently work to raise awareness about the many issues facing the global ocean and to encourage direct action and monitoring efforts around the world.
