Call
Fathom Fund (2021)
In Canada, the ocean can be understood as a ‘continuum’, encompassing land, coastal areas, freshwater, ice, and the open ocean; an interconnected expanse, changing rapidly due to climate change. Understanding and adapting to change is crucial to mitigating economic, environmental, and community health risks, and identifying opportunities for a more ocean-literate and committed society. Ocean literacy encapsulates our relationship(s) with the ocean. Communicating changing relationships (e.g., experiences, knowledge systems, observations, solutions) is needed to support and bridge ocean science impact with community action.This project addresses this need through community-based participatory research (CBPR). CBPR values research with participants in ways that recognize and respect different forms of knowledge and local experiences.Through CBPR, Canadians will share stories of changing ocean relationships, through community science journalism and participatory visual methods (PVM). The aim is to co-produce knowledge and solutions to:
- showcase diverse and less heard voices in ocean science (e.g., Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, women, early career professionals, and youth);
- contribute to community adaptation and collaboration;
- inform ocean climate change policy, conservation management and decision-making with respect to ocean continuum planning, monitoring, and use;
- meaningfully partake in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
An interactive, virtual storymap will be integrated into the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition’s (COLC) Community Platform, enabling wide dissemination of ocean stories among popular and alternative media outlets (regionally, nationally, internationally). Specific benefits to Canada’s ocean science communities include: (1) strengthening civic-practitioner knowledge sharing; and (2) identifying observations, drivers, and solutions related to ocean change at a community level.
