When your team rescues a sea turtle off the Florida coast, it may seem like a story that matters primarily to the people in that community. But if you’re suddenly treating more turtles injured by discarded fishing gear, that individual rescue could be one example of a much larger problem affecting marine life around the world.
The animal in front of you gives people a tangible way to understand an issue stretching far beyond one beach or coastline. A strong ocean conservation public relations strategy can help identify when the work you’re doing locally belongs in that bigger conversation.
Look for What Your Team Is Seeing Firsthand
When you’re focused on protecting wildlife, restoring habitats or conducting research, something that feels routine to your team could be noteworthy to everyone else.
Are you rescuing more animals for a particular reason? Has something changed in a habitat you’ve monitored for years? Are you finding a new type of debris during cleanups?
Those observations can provide journalists with something valuable: people who are close enough to an issue to see how it’s actually affecting our oceans.
The media story may not be that you completed another rescue or restoration project. It may be what that work is revealing.
Give a Big Issue Something People Can See
Problems like ocean warming, plastic pollution and biodiversity loss can be difficult to comprehend because of their enormous scale. Local conservation work can make those issues more tangible.
One animal harmed by marine debris can help audiences understand the consequences of ocean pollution. Changes to one reef can illustrate what warmer waters mean for marine ecosystems. What your researchers are seeing in one location could add an important perspective to a conversation happening around the world.
The local story gives journalists an entry point, while your expertise helps them explain why it matters beyond that location.
Don’t Assume Your Story Is Only Local
It’s easy to think about media opportunities geographically and assume that if something happened in your community, the natural targets are your local newspaper or television stations.
Local coverage can be incredibly valuable, but it doesn’t always have to be the finish line.
The right public relations strategy can identify the larger trends connected to your work and determine when a story could be relevant to national outlets, conservation publications, podcasts or journalists covering environmental issues.
That can introduce your organization to potential donors and partners while establishing your experts as sources journalists know they can turn to when the next ocean conservation story develops.
The local conservation stories capable of making the biggest waves aren’t always the most dramatic. Sometimes they’re the stories that give us our clearest view of something much bigger happening beneath the surface.
If you’re ready to bring greater attention to your ocean conservation work, contact Orange Orchard here or call (865) 977-1973.