Why Good Ocean Science Still Doesn’t Lead to Action

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We may already know how to protect
large parts of the ocean, but that

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knowledge often fails to reach
the people making the decisions.

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekday ocean news update.

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If you care about staying informed
about the ocean every weekday, hit

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There's a common
assumption in conservation.

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If scientists discover something
important, governments and the

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public will eventually respond, right?

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That's how it always works, isn't it?

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But no, that's not always what happens.

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In fact, that rarely happens.

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There's growing evidence that
one of the biggest platforms in

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conservation is not a lack of science.

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It's a communication gap, a gap between
researchers, policymakers, industries,

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media systems, and the public.

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And that gap can slow down real action.

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So today's question is this: Why does so
much important ocean science struggle

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to reach the people who need to hear it?

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Now, this is one of the things
that I love to talk about.

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It's all about communication,
so we are going to get into it.

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Researchers often call this
the science practice gap.

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Scientists may publish strong
evidence about ecosystem decline,

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fisheries management, climate
impacts, or even marine protection.

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But translating that science
into policy is much harder

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because the problem is timing.

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Science research moves very slowly.

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Politics moves unpredictably,
and social media moves instantly.

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That creates a huge disconnect.

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By the time important findings reach
public discussion, the online conservation

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may already be focused on something else.

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Like, even just think as an analogy.

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If some scandal happens on social
media, say with an influencer.

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Say, you know, somebody from Love
Island cheated on the partner that they

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won the Love Island with, and I don't
know anything about Love Island, so

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I don't know if this happened worse.

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Just heard my daughters
talking about earlier today.

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If that happens, if there's a scandal
in real life, like after the show has

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been shot and aired, that becomes a
scandal for like maybe twenty-four hours.

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If they're lucky, forty-eight hours.

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And then it just disappears,
like nothing ever happened.

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That's the same thing that happens on
social media with even ocean research.

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You see it pop up for maybe a day,
maybe two, and then it just disappears.

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But the research that's actually driving
that took about three to four years.

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So that study happened, like
the field work happened as

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early as like five years ago.

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It it takes so long to write,
and then you have like two days,

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maybe maximum, of attention on it.

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And that could go to a lot of
just different media outlets.

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It's going on social media, and people
may or may not talk about it, and

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sometimes they talk negatively about it,
even though they did a lot to have this

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wonderful campaign go out and then all
of a sudden people just misinterpret

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it and just don't believe in it.

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Like, there's a lot of stuff
going on, on social media.

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There's also that.

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So the timing really sucks.

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And of course, another
problem is accessibility.

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Scientific papers are often
written for specialists, and they're

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only available for specialists.

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They use technical language.

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They're hidden behind paywalls.

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Like, it costs $40 probably
around that US to access if you

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don't have a subscription, which
are like tens of thousands of

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dollars, to a science magazine.

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It costs $40 per article
just to get access to it.

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Now, there are ways around it.

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You can reach out to the researcher
personally and be able to do that,

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but not every researcher's gonna be
able to handle hundreds of people

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trying to get access to the data.

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And then there's the technical language.

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That it has to do it.

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And they may not clearly explain what
everyday people should care about.

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Like when I went to school, I did
a plant biology class right before I

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did my master's, because I remember
I had to redo a semester just to show

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that I could get good marks, 'cause
my undergrad marks weren't the best.

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But regardless, I had to do this.

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I did this class, and it was great.

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There was only two people in the class.

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It was a fourth-year class.

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It was plant biology, which
it wasn't my strong suit.

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But the great part about
that class is every class we

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would have to read a paper.

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And then during that class, the
professor would go through and ask us

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questions about the paper and then
talk about how everything was set

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up, the methodology, what we thought
about it, the interpretation, the

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introduction, all these different
types of things, and you're just

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like, "Wow, this is really cool.

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I can actually do a lot with this." And
I learned so much, and I was trained

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so well in learning how to interpret
and how to read this type of paper.

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So for someone who hasn't done the
training or spent the money to go to

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university to train how to read these
papers or even write these papers, it can

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be a difficult thing to understand, right?

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We're not used to this
type of terminology.

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Don't forget the acronyms that we use
in science, which is like sometimes I

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don't even understand what's going on.

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And then of course, there's the
fact that misinformation spreads

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so quickly because it's simple,
emotional, and easy to share.

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And then that really
puts a damper on things.

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That puts conservation scientists
in a difficult position.

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Because as scientists,
we need an accuracy.

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We also need clarity, but
we don't always get that.

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We can't always display it because
science is not easy, and sometimes

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it's not gonna be good news.

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Oftentimes, it's not gonna be good
news, and nobody wants to hear bad news.

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They wanna hear good news.

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And so when you start to go out
or you start to clarify something,

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like, I remember when Seaspiracy
came out as a documentary on Netflix,

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horrible, horrible documentary.

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But when scientists came out to speak
out on it, we were the bad people.

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We were the bad scientists who
were ruining everybody's day.

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It said, "Don't eat fish ever again."
So all the people who didn't like to eat

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fish or were all about environmentalism,
they're like, "Don't eat fish, don't

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eat fish, Seaspiracy." But Seaspiracy
is just chock-full of misinformation.

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It is horrible.

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Like, I remember that was when
Clubhouse, the app, was out.

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I had rooms where I would be discussing
this, and I was doing the discussion,

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telling people all the misinformation that
was in it, and nobody believed me because

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it was so easy to believe the other part.

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It was so easy to believe the movie.

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So it's a very difficult
position that we're put in when

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we're trying to do this type of
communication because it's complex.

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But the thing is, is today's ocean issues
compete with everything else online.

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It competes with politics.

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It competes with entertainment,
celebrity news, and of course, there's

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algorithms that change all the time
because people don't wanna necessarily

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see scientists all the time, and the
attention spans are extremely short.

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And that means communication
style matters enormously.

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A strong story about whale
recovery may spread widely.

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A detailed fisheries management update
probably won't, even if the fishery

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story has a larger long-term consequence.

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This is one reason why podcasts,
documentaries, and digital creators are

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becoming more important in conservation.

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They help translate complexity
into stories people can understand.

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And that translation matters
because public understanding

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affects policy pressure.

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It affects funding.

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It affects voting.

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It affects consumer behavior.

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And honestly, some of the
biggest ocean debates today are

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really communication battles.

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Think about deep sea mining, plastic
pollution, offshore drilling, marine

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protected areas, seafood traceability.

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The science matters, but the
public narrative matters, too.

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And I think that's what's really important
when we're talking about communication.

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It's important to not just
start social media for the

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sake of starting social media.

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You don't just start a TikTok
account and you start posting

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and hopefully it goes the best.

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That's not always what's gonna happen.

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When you have to start communicating,
which we're a position where

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communication is key, as we just
documented this entire week.

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You have to come out with a plan.

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You have to have a strategy.

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And sometimes it's difficult
to come out with that strategy.

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And that's why the sponsor of this
episode and this podcast, Pisces

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Oceans, which I work for, by the way,

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we're a consulting firm that works
with nonprofit organizations,

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for-profit organization, academic
projects that are collaborative.

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We work with these organizations and
companies and projects to help amplify

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their message, to help come up with a
strategy that will build them towards

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a better future, a stronger funding
and long-term funding, but also getting

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their message to the right target
audience so that it makes a difference,

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not just to the science community, not
just to the policymakers, but to the

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people that will help drive the policy.

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So if you are interested and you have
an organization or a company, whether

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you're trying to do something good for
the ocean, check us out, piscesoceans.ca.

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That's piscesoceans.ca.

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I'm gonna put the link in the show notes.

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I want you to have a conversation with us.

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We are always willing to help you and
your organization do the good work of

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protecting the ocean, so piscesoceans.ca.

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If you wanna get a hold of me and
talk to me directly, you can just

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hit me up on LinkedIn or any of the
socials that I have in the show notes.

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Check that out.

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I'd love to have that conversation.

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Okay, so let's look at it.

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What's gonna happen next when we're
talking about this type of communication?

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I think conservation organizations are
starting to recognize the challenge

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more clearly because I've seen job
postings for communication specialists,

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job posting for communication manager.

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You now see more investment in
science communication, storytelling,

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public engagement, and digital
outreach more than ever.

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And some research projects are building
communication strategies directly into

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their planning 'cause when you plan
for funding, there's usually a piece,

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a percentage of that grant that is all
dedicated to science communication.

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That's where Pisces can come
in and come and help you do that.

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Others are partnering with journalists,
educators, and creators, or they're

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looking at consultants like myself.

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And honestly, I think it's necessary
because the ocean affects everybody.

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Food systems, climate regulations, jobs,
coastal economies, extreme weather, like

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we just saw a super typhoon go through
Saipan and just obliterate a lot of the

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buildings and cause flooding everywhere,
and that is seven years or six years

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after their last super typhoon that took
out schools where they never actually

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rebuilt it even before this super typhoon.

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So extreme weather is
a huge aspect in this.

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With all these other things I've
talked about, ocean affects everybody.

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But if people don't understand those
connections, the public urgency

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becomes much harder to build and
conservation actually slows down.

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The goal is not to oversimplify science.

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The goal is to make it
understandable enough that people

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can engage with it because people
protect what they understand.

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And the challenge is no longer
just discovering ocean problems

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and the trends that come with it.

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It's making sure the right
people actually hear the science

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to stop a number of these ocean
issues from actually happening.

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So if you find this interesting and you
have any questions, you can hit me up

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in the links in the show notes below.

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But if you haven't followed this
podcast, please follow How to Protect

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the Ocean podcast for your next weekday
ocean update, which will be tomorrow.

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We're gonna be talking
more about nonprofits.

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And then on Friday, we're gonna
be interviewing James Meissner.

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He's a nonprofit consultant, talks about
how ocean nonprofits can succeed in

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today's world and what kind of strategies.

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He has a lot of great tips in there.

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We had a couple of problems with
connection on my end with the interview,

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but hopefully I can edit that part
out and it'll come out smoothly.

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You don't wanna miss that
episode on Friday, so hit

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that follow button right now.

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And until tomorrow, this has been
another exciting episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.