Shifting Tides - Our Final Film Summary

As the two-year journey of the Shifting Tides project draws to a close, we are delighted to share our final summary film. This video draws together the threads of exploration, collaboration and discovery from communities on both shores of Carlingford Lough — from the divers surveying beneath the waves, to the artists, oyster-farmers, scientists and residents gathering above them. 

What you’ll see 

• The story of citizen scientists who learned the tools of the trade, recording observations in the lough and turning curiosity into meaningful data. 

• Moments from art and ecology, foraging and data collection workshops, webinars, shore-walks and community events that built connections between people and place and marine ecosystems. 

• The first year's activities, local heroes, food, arts, heritage, and even some climate comedy, were celebrated at Culture Night in Warrenpoint in 2024 

• Season 2 of Across Divides podcast took a deep dive into the Shifting Tides project Across six episodes listeners travel beneath the waves and beyond the tide line, hearing sounds from the lough and the voices of the past, along with volunteers, storytellers, heritage collectors and researchers about how art, culture, ecology and community combine to protect and restore a living lough ecosystem 

• A taste of film Who Needs Anemones? – Divers for Life in Carlingford Lough, where local divers become storytellers of the underwater world. 

• And the multi-media exhibition The Fishery Exchange, where art became more than framed pictures — a space where oyster-farmers, visual artists, oral-history collectors, underwater soundscape composers, scientists and researchers asked what ecological restoration of the lough could look like, and how community, heritage, economy and habitat are interwoven. 
  

Why it matters 

What began as a project about marine ecology and community engagement has grown into something more: 

• A reminder that healthy marine ecosystems and thriving coastal communities go hand-in-hand. 

• Proof that art plus science together can open up new ways of seeing, caring for and participating in our marine environment. 

• An evidence-base that citizen engagement is not just a nice idea—it delivers real insight, data and action. 

• A call to maintain and deepen the relationships created: between people and coast, between voices and data, between heritage and habitat. 
  

What’s next? 

While this summary film marks the end of the formal two-year programme, the ripples of Shifting Tides will continue: 

• The network of people and organisations remains under the new name Lough-Keepers. 

• The data gathered continues to underpin future work. 

• The conversations started here will carry on. 

• We invite you to watch this summary and other creative outputs, learn from our collection of resources and reflect on your own relationship with the shoreline, and perhaps ask: how might I help the tide keep shifting? 

Watch the film and consider forwarding it to someone who knows the lough — or someone who doesn’t yet. We hope the momentum, the connections, and positive community-led changes, like the ecology in the lough, stay vibrantly alive.