Communicating Climate Change and the Ocean 2013 Final Report

The Climate Interpretation Coalition is maturing beyond a set of discrete institutions to become a collective voice for communicating climate change and the ocean. As the three­‐year funded NOAA program and the empowerment evaluation end, the question of how to build ongoing communities of support arises. The findings are based upon an interview‐based exploration of individuals who participated in the 2012 Baltimore summit and who represent a broad spectrum of engagement (highly engaged with creating the coalition through to limited engagement in a single summit). The interviews were nested within the report about the original empowerment evaluation (please refer to the 2009–2012 report entitled, An empowerment evaluation of a national coalition of aquariums). This report strives to ensure the continued vibrancy of the aquariums and Climate Interpretation Coalition and inform the development of a new NOAA-­funded initiative, Building Ocean Awareness Together (BOAT), which is committed to the effective interpretation of challenging ocean issues.