Though there is an inspiring level of innovation happening in journalism – including how stories are framed, reported and presented – there is less daring and creativity in terms of the tactics of distribution. Our view is that journalism, and quite especially the journalism produced about the watery two thirds of the globe, needs to deliver reporting in new ways, on new platforms. Most importantly, it needs to be aimed at – and co-produced by – new demographics.

That’s why, with my team at the Outlaw Ocean Project, we seek to leverage art for the purpose of accessing a different audience and tapping them in a different way. Our goal is to target a younger and more diverse public, while also engaging them on a more visceral level than is typically possible through written or video journalism. We do this by melding our reporting with music, animation, stage performance, stop motion and, more recently, muralism.

The oceans supply much of the protein we eat, produce half the air we breathe, are the workplace to more than 50 million people, and carry 90% of the products we consume. And yet the public almost never thinks about dire things happening out there: sea slavery, murder with impunity, intentional dumping of waste, plastic pollution, over-fishing, arms trafficking, killing of stowaways, sea level rise, and more. By partnering with artists and giving them the creative license to present the reported stories in their own way, our hope is to conscript cultural diplomats who will give our reporting new life and audience, especially in those places most impacted by the very concerns we chronicle.

The Outlaw Ocean Mural Project assembles painters from around the globe to convey a sense of worry and wonder about what is happening at sea. Not unlike a literacy campaign, this project uses public art to raise cultural awareness and to bolster fluency about what is going on in the seas. Every several weeks we publish new paintings on the project website, each muralist has their own page, where visitors can watch a video showing the creative process and listen to each artist explain their motivations for joining the effort. If you’d like to visit the mural in person, each page offers an address for the location of the painting.