Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Marine pollution poses escalating threats to marine biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and coastal livelihoods, and there is growing interest in creative, multisensory strategies that can complement scientific and policy responses by fostering emotional connection and community participation. This study explored how ocean waste can be transformed into visual art and combined with music-based advocacy to support marine conservation and blue economy awareness in coastal communities of Lagos State, Nigeria. Using a qualitative Participatory Action Research design, the project engaged community members, artists, volunteers, and environmental stakeholders in beach clean-ups, waste collection, participatory art workshops, musical performances, and environmental education activities at three coastal sites between February and April 2026. Data were generated through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, informal discussions, field notes, and workshop documentation, and were analysed thematically using a coding frame derived from Social Practice Theory. The findings suggest that transforming locally collected marine debris into public artworks was associated with heightened environmental awareness among participants by providing tangible, place-based encounters with marine pollution, while music appeared to strengthen emotional engagement and facilitate culturally resonant communication. Participants also increasingly connected environmental protection with livelihoods, tourism, and community wellbeing, consistent with emerging blue economy understandings. These findings should be interpreted with caution: the study was short in duration, relied on qualitative observation and self-reported perceptions within selected communities, and was not designed to measure sustained behavioural change or support causal inference. Within these limits, the study suggests that participatory, arts-based approaches may complement conventional environmental communication in developing coastal contexts, and it identifies longitudinal evaluation as a priority for future research.</p>