How can we tell a human story in a more-than-human world? How can we perceive the influences and consequences that the natural and physical world — which surrounds human beings and upon which they depend for survival — has on people and societies, while also acknowledging the multiple agencies involved and interconnected? And how can we do this in the liquid, fluid, blue, and deep world of the planet’s oceans and coastal waters? This is a historical issue, but it also resonates in the present and future of human societies and their relationship with and dependence on the ecosystems and resources of the seas and oceans.

This scientific note addresses the value of the humanities for the historical understanding of the oceans and their contribution to enhancing ocean literacy.