Escalating Science Communication through Innovation

If you can find a project or a way to reach your target audience on a large scale, then you've hit the jackpot. The Museum of Underwater Art installed on the Great Barrier Reef in 2017 contains the largest underwater sculpture in the world. It is an innovative project with a focus on people, planet and profit that has a huge wow factor and has reached previously unthinkable, massive global audiences of over 184 million people through the unique combination of world class art, community science and coral reefs. The biomorphic Ocean Sentinel sculptures of scientists and conservationists make locals proud, and tourists go to learn, be inspired, and take action to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Here we show that scientists communicate with relatively small numbers of (generally) scientists. However, the Museum of Underwater Art allows a collaboration between art and science to amplify the audience reach by up to 6,500 times. A future challenge is to contextualize the current global coral bleaching and build on communication to leverage behaviour change for climate action.