Abstract

This dissertation examines the crucial and intertwined parts of these cultures and the conservation barrier narratives that constitute a culture. Language TEK and any other local marine knowledge disappear along with the oceans. TEK and other regional and oral forms of biodiversity, TEK and other local marine understanding, climate change, and a host of other resources are perpetually TEK and other localized and oral forms of history. This dissertation proves that the failure of most of the contemporary conservation and education practices (which may be aimed at the pragmatic end of the spectrum and use Virtual Reality or other visceral devices) is the neglect of the deeper linguistic and narrative structures that become the ontology of cultural and ecological civilization. This paper proposes and tests a set of techniques that work to 'decolonize' contemporary conservation practices by bridging TEK to contemporary practices centered, first and foremost, on documentation and revitalization of coastal languages' systemic authentic conservation. Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies within three coastal communities, we determine that a decline in the vitality of a language has a direct impact on understanding the complexity of ecology and its interconnections. The evidence suggests that the more developed the co-association of conservation strategies, which include traditional narratives of stewardship, the greater the community engagement and the more resilient the place-based resource management, contrasting proposes that the aquatic policy, to encourage local communities as primary, policy-aligned, nature custodians, should blend linguistic and cultural preservation in order to safeguard the priceless, deeply interlinked knowledge and biodiversity.

Keywords: Traditional ecological knowledge, Language preservation, Cultural narratives, Aquatic conservation, Coastal communities