Crafting conservation stories

We like to think that our story demonstrates how one small idea can spur community action to work towards a more sustainable future.

Riley and Ella spent their childhoods in the tropical islands of Barbados and Hawai’i, and they witnessed firsthand the impacts of climate change. Those experiences have guided their academic pursuits and participation in conservation-related projects like conducting aerial surveys of ancient marble quarries in Greece, studying fertilizer plant impacts on tidal inlet biologic communities in New Zealand, and using an underwater robot to recover derelict crab pots in Washington State.

Both Riley and Ella, juniors at Willamette University, are studying environmental science and archaeology with a focus on utilizing technological tools such as ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) and GIS to aid their work.

Their story  Recovering Lost Crab Pots of the Salish Sea  goes behind the scenes with the Sea Dragons in Washington State, a student-run underwater robotics team, and local partners. With an education grant from NOAA, they built underwater ROVs to locate and recover lost crab pots from regional waters. Through engaging media and maps, the story explains the functionality of ROVs to readers and the potential outcomes of utilizing technology and GIS for environmental cleanup.

Their student story won the 2023 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition in Track 1 and the Our Towns Community Mapping Award.

How did you first come to combine storytelling with GIS and spatial analysis?

We learned about combining storytelling with spatial analysis during one of our first courses in environmental science at  Willamette University . Our final project involved using ArcGIS StoryMaps to explore pressing environmental concerns and share our findings with our peers. This experience made ArcGIS StoryMaps stand out to us as a valuable storytelling technology when we later used it to spread awareness about our community-driven crab pot recovery research.

How did you find out about the competition and what motivated you to participate in it?

We found out about the competition through a GIS class offered by our school. The theme was a great fit for the derelict crab pot recovery project, so we decided to submit! We are especially grateful to have such a supportive  Willamette University Environmental Science Department  that has encouraged us to pursue these types of academic opportunities.

What would you say  Recovering Lost Crab Pots of the Salish Sea  is really about?

Beneath all the data and videos, our competition story is one of community resilience. It is about how students, community members, and county governments can come together to tackle pressing environmental challenges on a local scale.

We like to think that our story demonstrates how one small idea can spur community action to work towards a more sustainable future.

Once you had your idea for  Recovering Lost Crab Pots of the Salish Sea , how did you bring it to life? What did your storytelling process looking like, and how did you make decisions about narrative, visuals, and design?

We wanted to bring the reader into the world of what a student-led and community-driven research project is like, including our various triumphs, setbacks, and evolutions along the way. We found that a chronological storytelling framework would be best, as it allowed us to emphasize the progress and growth of our project from its early inspirations to our current fieldwork.

Since we had recorded a lot of footage from our ROV during our crab pot retrieval efforts, we were also eager to include those underwater photos and videos throughout our story as they help reduce barriers in understanding and ensure that everyone can visualize what it's like to actually work in challenging undersea environments.

Since GIS maps were a key element that guided our research in the field, we valued how ArcGIS StoryMaps easily allowed for their incorporation. Their dynamic nature allowed our readers to feel immersed in our research process.

How did your process include local or Indigenous communities? Do you have any recommendations for collaborative storytelling and ensuring local voices are represented and heard?

Local communities were involved in every step of our project, from boaters loaning us their vessels to the local students who participated in recovery efforts.

As a result, our project strengthened education pipelines across the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA to support more students developing technical and soft skills that they can utilize in their future careers.

This involved working alongside the  Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary  to facilitate an annual ROV workshop that offers students from coastal communities and Coastal Treaty Tribes an opportunity to connect the STEM tasks they are completing to real world fieldwork. After the workshop, students received the chance to participate in derelict crab pot recoveries, applying the skills they gained from ROV competitions to real environmental challenges.

As a student-driven, community-based project, our goal is not only to work towards stewarding our local waters but also to strengthen the education pathways that enable students and community members to be active participants in research and storytelling. Our recommendation is that all research should strive to contribute to these education pipelines so that local communities are empowered to advocate for environmental solutions.

How did ArcGIS StoryMaps allow you to tell your story in a way traditional methodologies could not?

One of our main goals has always been to engage the people who are most impacted by our work. Between collecting side-scan sonar data, GPS coordinates, and information about the species within the derelict crab pots, it felt like we were drowning in data!

The major challenge became how to display it in a fun and interactive way that could engage the communities that we had been working within. ArcGIS StoryMaps was the perfect fit, enabling us to share videos, quotes, interactive maps, and more in a cohesive narrative arc that can be expanded with each field season that we complete.

What is your favorite feature in the ArcGIS StoryMaps builder to work with?

To create our story, the most valuable tool in ArcGIS StoryMaps was definitely the map maker, which we employed when storytelling about our field seasons. The dynamic and interactive maps enabling the reader to feel more engaged with our work compared to a static backdrop.

We also valued the  sidecar functionality , allowing us to connect storytelling with visuals including quotes, photos, videos, and geospatial data. It transformed a bunch of dots on a screen to something with deeper meaning.

What was the biggest challenge in your storytelling process? 

The biggest challenge in the storytelling process was deciding how to include data from multiple different field seasons. We wanted the stories to connect but also to clearly differentiate the new information we gained each year. We went through multiple iterations of the stories trying to find the perfect combination.

By researching other stories by winners from the  2022 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition , we received so many ideas as well as tips and tricks to make our story connect in a cohesive way. Ultimately we decided to have a different section for each field season that would capture the trials and triumphs of the recovery process and the new GIS maps created for the different field sites.

What advice would you give to other storytellers?

Our best advice for other storytellers is to find a project you are passionate about and create a strong and diverse team that you can also have fun with!

There were many late nights troubleshooting both the story and the technical aspects of our research. Having people around you that you can both lean on for support and laugh with when things don’t go exactly as planned makes all the difference. For us, storytelling is something that is joyful since we are surrounded by an incredible team who can make the most of any situation!

What are some other projects you’re excited about incorporating ArcGIS StoryMaps into?

We’re excited to continue updating  Recovering Lost Crab Pots of the Salish Sea  about the future progress of the derelict crab pot recovery project, but we are also eager to bring our new skills in storytelling and spatial analysis to our future research.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about  Recovering Lost Crab Pots of the Salish Sea ?

As a community-driven project, our work is constantly changing and evolving. Our research is ongoing as we continue to develop new ways to locate and recover derelict fishing gear, and we are excited to incorporate GIS and ArcGIS StoryMaps into our future work.

Our hope is that our work will inspire more coastal communities to get involved in similar marine stewardship projects, while empowering students to utilize the skills they are gaining through their education to get involved.

We are always looking for new partners and projects to work on.