Introducing the Second Cohort of Ocean Reporting Fellows

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The first cohort of the Ocean Reporting Network (ORN) wrapped up in July, with eight Fellows publishing in-depth, data, and investigative stories on topics ranging from the global shark trade to the expansion of the U.S. seaweed industry, the harmful effects of burning the Pacific Ocean’s plastic waste, and the concentration of “British” fisheries in the hands of foreign conglomerates.

The success of the first year of the Pulitzer Center’s ORN fellowship program, which provides the unique opportunity for freelance or staff journalists to spend a whole year pursuing an in-depth, investigative ocean story, resulted in a record number of applications for the second cohort.

These included strong proposals on many of the topics that we specifically targeted with outreach and communications. The debates around controversial issues such as deep-sea mining and marine geoengineering are moving further up the news agenda and engaging more public awareness, and these are represented in the cohort this year. We were also impressed by several projects that proposed extensive data use and innovative reporting techniques.

The 2024 ORN Fellows are (in alphabetical order):

Elizabeth Claire Alberts, based in Belgium, will be looking into new angles in the debate around deep-sea mining for Mongabay. In a critical year for the industry and regulators, she will be partnering with Kara Fox of CNN on some elements of her investigation.

Lisseth Boon is based in Venezuela and will be working to expose the mismanagement that is enabling the over-exploitation of the country’s marine species and ecosystems for Armando.Info.

Helena Carpio is our second Fellow based in Venezuela. She will be using on-the-ground-reporting, sampling, and data techniques to document the extent of unreported oil spills for Prodavinci.

Delger Erdenesanaa, based in the U.S., is reporting for The New York Times on the drivers and impacts of ocean warming and marine heatwaves, documenting the impacts along America’s coastlines.

Alec Luhn is based in the U.K. and will be examining how companies and governments are proceeding with controversial marine geoengineering techniques and blue carbon credit schemes for Scientific American.

Davide Mancini, based in Spain, will be working on cross-border stories that focus on how illegal, unreported, and unregulated fish products are able to enter the European Union market, for Voxeurop.

Katie McQue, based in the U.S., will also take on a cross-border investigation, revealing dark shipping practices and regulation loopholes for Context News, which is published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Saroj Pathirana will investigate the long-term impacts of the X-Press Pearl, the worst marine ecological disaster in Sri Lankan history and the world's worst plastic marine pollution incident.

Borso Tall, based in Senegal, will be looking into how changes in the marine environment in West Africa can be traced to weather patterns in the U.S., for The Post & Courier. She will also be joining a grantee project looking at the connections between EU fisheries policies, declining fish stocks in West Africa, and migration.

Jenn Thornhill Verma, based in Canada, is focusing on cross-border measures between the U.S. and Canada that could ensure the survival of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, for Canada's The Globe and Mail.

In addition to benefiting from one another’s skills and diverse perspectives as part of a cohort, the 10 Fellows will receive funding, training, and the support of dedicated editors from the Pulitzer Center’s Environmental Investigations Unit. Further support from the Center’s Engagement team will help the Fellows amplify their stories, engage with their audiences, and measure impact.

Ocean reporting is a critical piece of the environmental and climate news landscape. But it remains underfunded, expensive, and challenging, and the topics are comparatively unreported. This has begun to change in recent years, particularly with coverage of rising ocean temperatures and the connection to extreme weather events, but deeper and more ambitious reporting is needed to elevate many more stories and drive real-world change.

With this model of fellowships and grants for individual stories, the ocean initiative is aiming to build a collaborative ecosystem of reporters and newsrooms around the world that have the tools, techniques, and knowledge to systematically probe the drivers of the degradation of our marine environment and engage audiences across a range of topics, stories, and formats.

“Bringing journalists together around a common theme not only strengthens the reporting, it creates a community,” said Lisa Gibbs, Pulitzer Center CEO. “Especially on complex subjects like the ocean, our collaborative network model advances best practices and sparks innovation in a way that benefits the broader news industry.”

We look forward to working with our Fellows in an exciting year of ocean reporting projects! Subscribe to the Pulitzer Center newsletter and follow ORN on social media to stay informed on the latest reporting projects and opportunities to get involved.