Triggers in science communication: “The Nazaré Wave: A trigger for learning”

Abstract

Meeting current coastal and ocean sustainability challenges requires wiser governance. Scientists, as knowledge generators, have the responsibility to contribute to a more informed society, which in turn will be able to support better decisions. However, inspiring the audience and assuring their receptivity to often complex scientific message is not a trivial task, particularly when the importance of the topic is not part of people's everyday life. This is the case of shelf-incised submarine canyons, which usually go unnoticed as they are “hidden” by the sea. This work aims to highlight how the use of an adequate communication trigger was effective in capturing the attention of a non-scientific audience to canyon and shelf processes. The study is supported by an outreach project: “The Nazaré Wave: a trigger for learning”. The Nazaré Wave is the highest wave ever surfed that became a very popular subject capturing extraordinary media coverage. Results show that selecting the adequate communication trigger effectively boosts scientific knowledge transfer and raised the predisposition conditions for the audience to be receptive to non-trivial ocean-related scientific topics. “The Nazaré Wave: a trigger for learning” revealed to be a highly successful initiative and similar strategies may be adopted in other projects aiming at increasing coastal and ocean literacy. The relevance of findings and outcomes of this study are especially relevant at the time marking the onset of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which acknowledges ocean literacy as a key pillar of global development.