Canada has over 243,000 km of coastline along the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific ocean, and another 9500 km along the Great Lakes. No matter where you live across this vast country, you are intimately connected to the ocean. But how do we ensure that people living in Canada- both inland and coastal- understand and appreciate this connection?
In February, 2022, a group of Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) and a collection of mentors from diverse ocean and communications backgrounds came together to design a campaign to do just that. Throughout a series of workshops led by the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition, supported by MEOPAR’s Workshop Training Award, the intergenerational team of 27 co-designed a campaign called the “Coastal Connection Challenge.”
“Working with COLC on the Ocean Decade Campaign has been a wonderful opportunity to meet and collaborate with some of the incredible diversity of Canadian ocean sector creatives. As a participant in this workshop series I’ve been consistently impressed with their communication, how they’ve curated networking opportunities with multi-disciplinary ocean mentors, and their commitment to inclusivity & transparency throughout the process.”
– Aneri Garg (she/her), Marine Ecologist & Science Communicator
The goal of this campaign is to encourage people living in Canada, in particular young people aged 16-30, to explore their connection to the ocean and local waterways. In so doing, the team is hoping to enhance ocean understanding and increase awareness of the UN Ocean Decade, a global effort which began in 2021 and will span the next 10 years.
The “Coastal Connection Challenge” challenges participants to get outside and use people-powered movement (walking, running, cycling, swimming, paddling, using a wheelchair-accessible trail, etc.) to personally connect with local waterways, and to virtually travel, collectively, the distance of Canada’s coastline and along some major inland freshwater shorelines.
Users can register to participate and upload their distance travelled throughout the duration of the campaign on the Ocean Week Canada website. The webpage will show our collective efforts to travel more than 250,000 kilometres.
Together, we will take a virtual journey counter clockwise around Canada, following the flow of water from the Great Lakes out to the Atlantic Ocean, around the Arctic coastline, south along the Pacific Coast, and back across the prairies. Our virtual ‘start line’ will be Thunder Bay, Ontario (June 3rd) and our ‘finish line’ will be Winnipeg, Manitoba (September 8th). Along the way we’ll highlight a selection of diverse communities through coastal story video collections and fun facts!
As participants upload their personal distances travelled, they will learn how their day-to-day choices and actions impact the ocean and waterways that lead to it. Together, we will learn how intimately connected we all are to the ocean, regardless of where we live in Canada. As we track our kilometres, we will reach ‘checkpoints’ where participants will be given information about the location reached, water facts relating to the kilometres travelled, and postcards that they can download and share on social media using the hashtag #CoastalConnectionChallenge.
By sharing their postcards using the hashtag, participants will be entered into various prize draws occurring monthly from June to September.
Canada’s coastline and watersheds are immense—but together, we can make the journey and discover our connections to the ocean and local waters along the way.
Learn more and join the challenge on oceanweekcan.ca and by following along on social #CoastalConnectionChallenge.
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Written by:
Meghan Callon (she/her/elle) | Communications Lead and Action Coordinator BScH Zoology, MSc Animal Behaviour, Grad. Cert. Science Communication
Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition / Coalition canadienne de la connaissance de l’océan
tel: 519-501-3027 | meghan@colcoalition.ca | www.colcoalition.ca @CANoceanlitCO
