June 2024
June was a busy month for our project team, with a viral video, expansion of our offered activities, and invitations to share our learning through working groups and events.
Sharing the wonders of local marine life
The video of a colour-changing octopus taken by Ciara, our Project Assistant continued to wow audiences across multiple platforms, amassing views on social media and reaching a potential audience of one billion! We delivered the organisation’s first ever Welsh-speaking interview, appearing on BBC Radio Cymru to discuss the fascinating creature. This helped drive interest and awareness of some of the remarkable wildlife around our coast, while allowing our message to reach a wider audience.
(Above left) HYYM Project Assistant featuring on one of many high-profile media pieces and the viral octopus video (right), which has been the best performing MCS social media post in over 3 years.
Credit: Hiraeth Yn Y Môr
Showcasing our work with Welsh Government’s Coast and Seas Partnership (CaSP)
We presented HYYM’s model and project learning to key external partners at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, including Natural Resource Wales, the Welsh Government, and The Crown Estate. Showcasing the project’s place-based work to a national, strategic group in this way enabled our team to place the work and learnings of HYYM in a real-world context, improving understanding and garnering further support.
In recognition of our work, particularly in the context of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Ffion, the HYYM Project Lead has been invited to join the Coastal Futures 2025 EDI Steering Group - a Steering Group for the UK’s most prestigious coast and sea conference. She’ll be applying the learnings of HYYM to advise on the accessibility of the venue and the event, the inclusivity of the conference agenda, and representation throughout the conference (among speakers and topics) to help ensure that it’s accessible and represents the diversity of the marine community.
Advocating for the ocean on a national stage
Credit: Hiraeth Yn Y Môr
Expanding and diversifying our range of activities
We worked with teams across the Marine Conservation Society to formally extend the range of activities and events we can offer communities, such as Seashore Safari Livestreams, sand sculpting and guided coastal walks. This will help us to better engage with communities by offering activities that suit their interests and lifestyles, and in particular allowing us to better reach underserved groups.
Engaging with the academic community
We continued to strengthen awareness and understanding of the Marine Conservation Society’s community engagement work and the HYYM project among marine specialists, by networking and communicating our work to organisations including Cardiff University, Portsmouth University, Exeter University, DEFRA, Environment Agency, and CEFAS. This led to us being invited to speak at the European Marine Science Educators Association 2024 Conference, out of 100 projects considered.
Producing accessible, bilingual ocean literacy resources
Our team worked alongside 30 One Ocean Forum community members and three local schools to involve communities in co-producing bilingual resources for the project. These stakeholders were involved in each stage of production, from deciding on the content and layout to providing feedback on drafts, enabling us to ensure that the leaflets and posters truly meet the needs of those using them.
To better represent the diverse range of people who use our blue spaces, we had a collection of new, captivating, and inclusive illustrations of underrepresented groups taking part in beach-based activities. This will diversify and promote our commitment to inclusive representation in our work going forwards.
Diversifying our Jack Tite-contracted illustrations that will be used to improve representation across MCS’ work.
Credit: Jack Tite for Hiraeth Yn Y Môr
