Art and science can work together to raise public awareness and propel conservation efforts needed to safeguard coral reef ecosystems, a group of coral scientists argues in a new research article published in Science Advances.
Coral reefs are among Earth’s most threatened ecosystems amid climate change, coral bleaching and threats from mining. However, most people rarely see or think about corals. The study argues that artists can help shine a light on coral fragility and the resilience of nature.
“Artistic interventions can render the largely unseen underwater world into something visible and accessible,” the authors note. “When paired with scientific data, interactive design, and clear calls to action, coral-inspired art installations in cities worldwide can amplify public understanding and galvanize support.”
They argue music, dance, film and visual art can help corals get noticed. However, many initiatives to address the coral reef crisis are often local or disconnected from one another. “While these projects successfully blend ecological restoration with public engagement, their impact is usually limited to specific regions,” the article notes.
However, article co-author Monica Medina, a biology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the U.S. told Mongabay in an email that local art can also take the global stage. She offered the example of Jalimer, a young Champeta musician in Colombia. Champeta is a local genre of music from the Colombian Caribbean, similar to reggaeton.
“I spoke with him [Jalimer] near one of my field sites, about how Champeta could play a role in changing local people’s perceptions about the environment if there were more songs with relevant lyrics,” Medina told Mongabay. “He surprised me months later with a song that he asked me to fact-check for the environmental impact statements.”
Medina’s team helped him make a music video for the song. “I know that his community in the fishing village he grew up in was very proud of his initiative and people received the song well locally, including the mayor of Cartagena at the time,” Medina said.
The Colombian ministry of environment invited Jalimer to perform at the COP16, a U.N. biodiversity conference, in 2024.
“The song had limited but great local impact. If the music movement around this topic was bigger, the education and conservation impact could be remarkable,” Medina said.
Leanne Hepburn is a coral biologist and environmental literacy expert not affiliated with the article. She said the recent paper “recognizes, perhaps finally, that communicating the coral reef crisis needs more than scientific evidence and papers. Art can make an ecosystem that is distant and invisible for many people feel tangible.”
“Where I think we need to be more cautious is in assuming a progression from awareness to inspiration and then to action,” she said. “An important next step for this work is understanding how art–science collaborations can translate into greater ocean literacy and participation, for whom, and under what circumstances.”
Banner image: Coral reef in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
