Freshwater community science is often oriented towards monitoring watersheds, mobilizing volunteers to sample streams, rivers, smaller lakes, or nearshore sites in bigger lakes. The tactile nature of nearshore monitoring protocols and sampling equipment lends itself well to public engagement and experiential learning, while also creating opportunities for bi-directional communication and knowledge exchange between scientists and members of the public, especially when sampling takes place at group events. By contrast, sampling offshore sites in larger lakes creates several practical and logistical challenges, which also have implications for public engagement and participation, as remote sampling locations in deeper parts of larger lakes are frequently inaccessible to volunteers. Community science approaches to offshore sampling can involve opportunistic data collection by individuals on boats, but this creates safety issues and does not always lend itself to the same engagement and pedagogical opportunities that are available with nearshore approaches. Monitoring open water and central regions of lakes with buoys and other real-time sensing equipment generates valuable data, but presents barriers to community engagement, public participation, and learning. In this presentation, we draw on the experiences of the Real-Time Aquatic Ecosystem Network (RAEON) to identify some opportunities and challenges for public engagement with offshore monitoring in the Great Lakes. Using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, ranging from pamphlets, narratives, art, and communications materials to online platforms, to public displays and installations, we describe ways to make offshore freshwater data visible to the public. Even when remote offshore sensing instruments operate “out of sight and out of mind” from the public, real-time, high-frequency monitoring instruments like buoys and autonomous underwater vehicles also present new ways to engage communities and tell different stories about freshwater health and ecosystem concerns.