Stromness Museum Oceans – Wellbeing – Youth project

Exploring the connections between ocean health, climate action and young people’s wellbeing

Stromness Museum partnered with the West Mainland Youth Achievement Group and other local youth groups on a project exploring the connections between ocean health, climate action, and young people’s wellbeing.

Titled Oceans – Wellbeing – Youth, the initiative included art, citizen science, and hands-on marine exploration to help young people connect with the marine environment on our doorstep. The project was funded by Orkney Youth Local Action Group, with the money allocated for young people, by young people.

The project had multiple phases over several months. First, four local youth groups worked with Edinburgh-based artist Jenny Pope to make a creative climate wellbeing toolkit. Each young person imagined and invented then constructed a practical, playful ‘tool’ using found objects, each one a creative invention to counteract things which make them feel sad or upset in relation to the climate emergency.

Then the West Mainland Youth Achievement Group worked with STEM educator Joel Chaney of Tern360 to help engineer a temperature-sensing buoy capable of transmitting real-time sea temperature data to Stromness Museum. This gave participants direct experience of engineering for the marine environment as well as climate monitoring.

Finally, in late June, the group joined Kraken Diving for a snorkel safari right outside the museum and were invited to help record the species they saw, contributing meaningfully to citizen science project Seasearch. The buoy was officially launched, and streamed live data publicly.

Very sadly and rather ironically the sensor was damaged in heavy south-easterly storms in January 2026 and is currently being repaired. The hope is that version 2 can be attached to Jenny Pope’s floating sculpture Shoogly Holm, which is currently installed in the sea outside the museum.

One outcome for the young people was enjoyment, especially during the snorkel safari, but it also contributed to work on their Dynamic Youth Award. One of the outcomes for the museum was working in partnership with Tern360 who have now developed an Energy Safari around Stromness, based from the museum.

The temperature buoy data represents a lasting contribution to local climate monitoring, the first time that the Orkney community could access live data on sea temperature that we are aware of. The project demonstrated how combining creative arts with practical science can create unique and engaging projects for the young people involved. This was also the precursor for the artist Jenny Pope’s arts/wellbeing/science project Shoogly Holm, which is ongoing at the museum.