The ‘Aquariosity Project’: Art, Ocean Health, and the Human Cost of Marine Pollution

By Lon Levin, BFA & Gregg Anthony Masters, MPH**

“The ocean holds both the memory of life’s beginning and the evidence of human neglect.”

The ocean is not separate from human life. It helps regulate climate, supports biodiversity, sustains fisheries, and underpins the health and well-being of communities around the world, which is why the Aquariosity Project approaches ocean protection as both an artistic and a public health imperative.

Created by ArtToday.tv co-principals Lon Levin, BFA and Gregg Anthony Masters, MPH, the 'Aquariosity project’ is a creative collaboration designed to deepen public awareness of ocean degradation and encourage environmental responsibility through art.

At its core, Aquariosity is about connection. It connects artistic imagination with scientific urgency, marine life with human health, and beauty with responsibility. In a time when toxic pollution, microplastics, synthetic chemicals, and abandoned fishing gear, ie, netting, etc., are accumulating in oceans worldwide, the project asks viewers to look again at the underwater world - not just as a place of wonder, but as a living system under increasing stress.

Ocean health is a public health and marine health issue

Ocean pollution is often treated as an environmental issue alone, but that framing is too narrow. Marine pollution is also a public health issue, because what harms marine ecosystems can also affect food systems, livelihoods, coastal economies, and human exposure to contaminated seafood and waterborne pollutants. A major scientific review on ocean pollution describes the seas as increasingly burdened by plastics, toxic metals, petroleum, pesticides, industrial chemicals, sewage, and other wastes, with consequences for both ecosystem integrity and human health.

Dolphin swimming in microplastic pollution entangled in netting

Microplastics are a particularly troubling example. NOAA defines them as “plastic pieces smaller than five millimeters” and notes that they can be harmful to ocean and aquatic life. Because they are so small, they are often mistaken for food by wildlife, including fish, mussels, and even whales, which means they can move through marine food webs in ways that are difficult to control once pollution is widespread.

This is where Aquariosity becomes more than a visual project. It frames ocean health as part of the same conversation as public health. That is a powerful shift, because it reminds us that the sea is not merely a scenic backdrop or a symbolic wilderness. It is part of the biological and social eco-systems that sustain human life.

The rising burden of toxic pollution

Plastics in the marine environment are not inert. NOAA states that microplastics can attract and carry pollutants in the water and can also release chemicals that were added during manufacturing, such as compounds used to make products colorful or flexible. Peer-reviewed reviews have similarly warned that marine plastics can transport toxic additives and sorbed contaminants, raising concerns about exposure across the food web and possible downstream consequences for human health.

That concern widens further when we include so-called ‘forever chemicals’ and other manufactured compounds. According to a review in Human Health and Ocean Pollution, chemicals released into the marine environment from industrial activity and plastic waste - including phthalates, bisphenol A, flame retardants, and perfluorinated chemicals - can disrupt endocrine signaling, reduce fertility, damage the nervous system, and increase cancer risk. The precise risk to any individual person depends on exposure pathways and dose, but from a public health standpoint the broader warning is clear: persistent pollutants in the sea do not stay neatly contained in the sea.

The same is true of abandoned fishing gear and netting. Lost or discarded nets can continue trapping marine animals long after they are abandoned, causing injury, exhaustion, suffocation, and death. These “ghost nets” are part of a larger pattern in which ocean pollution is not just unsightly or abstract, but actively destructive to living systems.

From marine ecosystems to human exposure

The relationship between marine degradation and human health is increasingly recognized through a One Health lens, which sees the health of people, animals, and ecosystems as interconnected. When marine animals ingest microplastics, the concern is not only direct harm to those species. It is also the possibility that pollutants and particles move through food chains, affect seafood quality, and contribute to broader patterns of chemical exposure.

Scientists are still refining what we know about the long-term human health impacts of microplastics and associated contaminants. That uncertainty matters, but it should not be used as a reason for delay. Public health often works on prevention before all mechanisms are completely mapped, especially when exposures are widespread and the potential harms are cumulative. Aquariosity reflects that logic. It is rooted in awareness, precaution, and stewardship rather than passive observation.

In other words, the project makes a careful but urgent argument: if the ocean is absorbing our waste, then eventually our communities, our food systems, and our shared future may absorb the consequences.

The artist’s vision

Aquariosity is guided by an artist statement that begins not with damage, but with life:

“We explore the creation of life in an underwater setting, from primordial soup to the emergence of higher forms of life. Our intention is to celebrate the miracle of life and the beauty of the underwater world.

To bring this vision to life, I’m drawing inspiration from two iconic artists of the early 20th century: Matisse and Chagall.

Their bold use of color and expressive forms are well-suited to capturing the essence of underwater life. The result will be a dreamlike, emotionally resonant experience that draws viewers into the immersive world we’re creating.” – Lon Levin

This statement gives the project its emotional center. Aquariosity is not built only on warning; it is built on reverence. By tracing a path from primordial origins to complex underwater life, the work invites viewers to think about the ocean as the cradle of life itself. That framing matters, because people are often more willing to protect what they feel connected to and what they can imagine as sacred, beautiful, or irnsreplaceable.

The project’s visual strategy supports that purpose. Rather than presenting the ocean only as a damaged site, Aquariosity first restores a sense of wonder. It celebrates marine life even as it calls attention to the systems threatening it. That balance between beauty and alarm is part of what gives the collaboration its power.

Why Matisse and Chagall matter here

The artistic references to Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall are especially apt. Matisse’s work is closely associated with bold color, fluid composition, and a fascination with the sea, qualities that make his influence especially resonant for an underwater visual language. Chagall, meanwhile, is known for dreamlike imagery, floating forms, and emotionally charged color, all of which lend themselves naturally to a project exploring emergence, mystery, and marine imagination.

Together, those influences suggest an underwater world that is not merely documentary, but immersive and emotionally heightened. That matters because scientific communication alone does not always generate public engagement. A dreamlike visual world can carry viewers into a deeper encounter with fragility, beauty, and loss in ways that statistics often cannot.

Aquariosity therefore works on two levels at once. It is aesthetically expressive, and it is socially purposeful. The vivid palette and lyrical forms do not distract from the issue. They create the conditions for people to care.

Art as conservation communication

There is strong precedent for using art to support environmental awareness. Smithsonian Ocean has highlighted art-centered conservation efforts such as Washed Ashore, which transforms plastic debris into sculpture to draw attention to marine pollution and its effects on sea life. The Smithsonian has also featured collaborations that combine art, science, and public engagement to help audiences connect emotionally with threatened marine ecosystems.

'Washed Ashore' exhibit transforms plastic debris into sculpture

Aquariosity belongs in that wider tradition of art as a form of public communication and civic engagement. It uses image, mood, and symbolism to bridge the distance between environmental science and everyday feeling. That bridge is essential. Many people understand that pollution is bad in the abstract; fewer truly feel how marine decline relates to their own health, their food, their communities, or their moral responsibilities.

Art can close that gap. It can create a point of entry where scientific language may feel remote or technical. It can help translate ocean risk into something immediate and human. In that sense, Aquariosity does not compete with science. It amplifies it.

Why this collaboration is timely

This collaboration arrives at a moment when concern about ocean contamination is growing, and for good reason. Marine microplastics are now recognized as a widespread problem affecting coastal communities, marine ecosystems, aquatic life, and human health. New NOAA-linked research has also emphasized microplastics through a One Health perspective, underscoring the importance of understanding their effects on marine mammals, environmental systems, and human risk assessment together.

Bonnie Ertel with a deceased bottlenose dolphin, to be taken back to the Hollings Marine Laboratory for a necropsy (animal autopsy). This work is performed under a stranding agreement with NMFS (photo credit: Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network)

That broader framing is exactly what makes the partnership between an artist and a public health professional especially compelling. Lon Levin’s visual imagination and Gregg Anthony Masters’ public health perspective create a framework that is at once cultural, ecological, and civic. Aquariosity does not ask viewers only to admire underwater life. It asks them to consider what obligations follow from that admiration.

In practical terms, those obligations may include reducing single-use plastics, supporting more responsible manufacturing and waste systems, advocating for stronger pollution controls, backing marine conservation policy, and participating in local and global efforts that reduce debris before it reaches waterways and coastlines. Public awareness is not the final goal, but it is often the necessary beginning.

A project grounded in beauty and responsibility

The great strength of Aquariosity is that it does not force a choice between beauty and activism. It understands that beauty can be a form of activism when it helps people see clearly, feel deeply, and act responsibly. The underwater world in this project is not only enchanting. It is also morally instructive. It reminds us that the miracle of life under the sea is inseparable from the question of how we are treating the planet that sustains us.

That makes Aquariosity especially well-suited to ArtToday.tv. It is a project that values artistic expression while engaging the public square. It invites reflection, but it also invites response. At a time when marine life faces mounting pressure from pollution, synthetic chemicals, and waste that persists for decades, the project offers something rare: a way to communicate urgency without abandoning wonder.

The ocean holds both the memory of life’s beginning and the evidence of human neglect. Aquariosity asks us to confront both truths, and to decide whether our legacy will be accumulation, indifference, and damage - or care, protection, and renewal.

The choice is in our hands.

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** AI Use & Editorial Standards Disclosure. In producing this content, the authors employ AI language tools in a defined supporting role: (1) Research aggregation: surfacing relevant source material and authoritative references across peer-reviewed, institutional, the arts and journalistic databases; (2) Structural organization: proposing content architecture and draft sequencing; (3) Draft suggestion: generating candidate language for author review. The authors retain sole editorial responsibility for all published content. Every citation is independently confirmed as accurate and accessible prior to publication. No headlines, pull quotes, or factual claims are published without author verification. AI-generated language is treated as raw material then recast entirely in the authors' established voices and subject-matter expertise before any content reaches publication. This workflow reflects the authors' commitment to the standard that AI serve the author, not replace the author.