June 16, 2025
Our oceans are feeling the heat of climate change. Rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss are happening across our oceans, even if we cannot see or feel the consequences directly. According to the Guardian, 80% of coral reefs have now been impacted by bleaching.
As the Coastal First Nations remind us, the ocean isn’t just a resource, it’s a relative. For millennia, Indigenous communities have understood the ocean as a living system, with responsibilities that flow both ways.
How can climate communicators encourage responsibility for unseen consequences and protect species below the surface?
Here are three tactics:
1. Make it visible: The ocean is bursting with life and wonder—yet so much of its magic lies hidden beneath the surface. By harnessing the power of photography and videography, we can unveil this underwater world directly to audiences.
There are countless creative ways to do this. Imagine the impact of a travelling photography exhibit that immerses communities in vibrant marine life or a consumer-driven video contest that invites people to tell their own ocean stories. Picture the potential of VR headsets transporting viewers into coral reefs or kelp forests (no wetsuit required).
2. Leverage emotions: While we can’t ‘see’ underneath the waves, many of us feel an innate connection, whether that’s because we enjoy surfing or sea sports, relaxing on the coastline, or simply appreciating the wildlife within.
By tapping into this emotional connection, we can reignite people’s love for the sea and inspire a renewed sense of responsibility.
3. The human-ocean connection: The truth is ocean degradation isn’t just a threat to marine life; it’s a threat to our way of life. Think: the collapse of entire marine food webs, not just what’s on our dinner plates; rising insurance premiums from intensified storm surges; the livelihoods of small-scale fishery employees; and scorching heat waves driven by disrupted ocean currents.
When we connect the dots between distant ecosystems and everyday realities, we move ocean health from a global issue to a local imperative.
Our lived experience:
At Yulu, we connect awareness to action. That’s why we created an Impact Program, designed to take the challenge of ocean health directly to the next generation of changemakers.
In partnership with Ocean Wise, a non-profit dedicated to protecting and restoring our oceans, we launched the Ocean Wise Innovation Lab: a project-based competition that invited youth aged 13 to 30 to tackle the urgent issue of ocean plastic pollution.
This wasn’t just a challenge: it was a launchpad. With mentorship from global ocean health experts, 175 participants developed a solution to plastic pollution. From grassroots campaigns to tech prototypes, the Innovation Lab proved that when equipped with the right tools, changemakers can drive tangible impact.
Final word:
Climate communicators have a key role to play in protecting ocean health and mitigating biodiversity loss: amplifying the unseen and translating silent shifts into urgent stories. What other communication tools raise awareness of issues we cannot see?