This story is a part of the GenOcean campaign — an official Ocean Decade campaign showcasing Decade Actions, collaborating organizations and ocean leaders that focus on youth and citizen science opportunities to help anyone, anywhere be the change the ocean needs.
Now in its 15th year, the Ocean Awareness Contest invites students aged 11–18 to explore how climate change and other human activities are impacting the ocean, and how they can use their creativity to spark change. Much more than an art contest on social media, it’s a global creative call to action that transforms art into advocacy and students into storytellers.
The Ocean Awareness Contest addresses Ocean Decade Challenge 10: Restore society’s relationship with the ocean. It is designed to ensure that the multiple values and services of the ocean for human wellbeing, culture and sustainable development are widely understood through art. It also helps to identify and overcome barriers to behavior change required for successfully changing humanity’s relationship with the ocean.
Bow Seat, a US nonprofit that empowers young people to use their creativity to explore environmental issues, share their perspectives and advocate for a healthier ocean and planet, hosts the Ocean Awareness Contest and has seen it grow from a regional initiative in 2011 into a global platform for ocean literacy, artistic activism for conservation and youth-led change. The Contest now consistently receives submissions from over 140 countries.
Whether through poems, paintings, podcasts or powerful short films, participants explore some of the most pressing issues facing the ocean and planet. Specific topics participants have addressed include plastic pollution, sea-level rise and coral bleaching, with resilience, innovation and heart.
Creativity as Climate Action
The Ocean Awareness Contest showcases young people not just as future leaders, but as advocates already leading today. To leverage their drive and position them as powerful voices in the ocean space, Bow Seat provides participants with tools, support and an international stage to raise awareness and share solutions. Each year’s Contest theme challenges students to make personal and political sense of a changing ocean.
The 2025 theme, “Connections to Nature: Looking Inside, Going Outside,” invited students to reflect on their inner worlds and its connection to their environments. From coastlines and coral reefs to backyard birds and ancestral traditions, participants were encouraged to explore their personal, emotional, cultural and even spiritual bonds we share with nature, and how these connections can be a source of strength in the climate crisis.
“This theme gave students permission to slow down and pay attention to what moves them, what frightens them, and to explore aspects of nature that they most connect with,” says Linda Cabot, founder of Bow Seat. “When we asked young people to look inward and outward, what came back was extraordinarily raw, honest, powerful work that bridges science and self.”
From Contest to Community
Participation doesn’t end with submission. Winners receive scholarships of up to US$1,500, and many go on to join Bow Seat’s global youth community where they collaborate with artists, activists and scientists, and even lead their own conservation initiatives.
For example, student winners from Kenya, the Philippines, Singapore, India, Brazil and the United States have gone on to present their work at international summits, start school-based environmental clubs and launch social media campaigns that reach tens of thousands of ocean enthusiasts.
“I have realized many things that are creating impacts on the climate,” says one past winner from the 2024 Contest. “My small efforts may help to contribute to reducing climate change. Now I want everyone to put in their efforts and make this world a better place.”
Global Reach, Local Stories
Every year, Bow Seat curates a digital collection of top works from the Contest which becomes a living archive of how youth across cultures are experiencing and responding to the environmental and ocean crises. From a stop-motion film in China about microplastic nightmares to a watercolor painting from India that celebrates ocean memory, the submissions are as diverse as they are urgent.
“This is about more than just climate science,” says Jess Leffler, Bow Seat’s Senior Vice President. “It’s about memory, culture and emotion. It’s about what it means to care and engage in a creative, meaningful and impactful way. That’s what makes these stories so powerful.”
Making Waves Beyond the Contest
Bow Seat’s impact extends far beyond the Contest. Their team regularly collaborates with schools, museums, UN partners and grassroots collectives to spotlight youth work and push for ocean literacy in education systems. Their student-produced media has been featured at COP events, environmental film festivals and in classrooms across several continents.
The impact of this creative movement is evident in both participation numbers and personal transformation. To date, over 38,000 young people have participated in the Contest. According to impact data from the 2024 Contest, 76% of students reported an increase in knowledge about climate and ocean issues, while 86% said creating something helped them personally connect with these topics. Confidence in creative abilities soared too, with 80% of participants feeling more confident in their skills after completing their submissions.
But perhaps even more powerful is what shifted inside them. 70% said the Contest changed how they see the world or the way they act in it. A majority, 68%, said they now feel more optimistic about our changing climate. When asked why, students indicated it was due to a sense of community (70%), learning about real solutions (59%) and the empowering act of creation itself (56%).
“It felt very comforting to know how many people came together to make this project and this concept so successful,” says a Contest participant. “It was also very inspiring, and I changed in the sense that I feel more aware and more confident that whatever little I try to do does actually matter because there are so many more people out there supporting this work and the messages we share through it.”
What’s Next?
Bow Seat plans to deepen its work across the Global South, nurture more multilingual entries and partner with organizations that center Indigenous knowledge and frontline leadership. The team is also exploring ways to bring youth art directly into environmental spaces so that decision-makers can see and hear the ocean and environment through the eyes of the next generation.
Join the Movement
Whether you’re a student, teacher, parent or overall ocean advocate, there are many ways to get involved. You can visit bowseat.org to explore past winners, read through educational toolkits or submit to the 2026 Ocean Awareness Contest: “Your Story, Our Ocean: How Our Ocean Sustains, Protects, and Inspires Us.”
The 2026 Contest invites you to reflect on your personal connection to the ocean — whether you live near the coast or far from it. From food and oxygen to cultural traditions and creative inspiration, the ocean touches every aspect of our lives. Through art, writing, performance, film or multimedia, we want to hear how the ocean sustains, protects and inspires you.
Students ages 11–18 are invited to submit their entries for a chance to win cash prizes of up to US$1,000 and join the world’s largest environmental youth program for creative arts.
Art is not a luxury. For today’s generation of environmental defenders, it is a form of resistance and a way to reclaim agency to spark change. Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest proves that when youth are trusted with a platform, they can lead the change towards a more sustainable and just future.
