Oceana | Protecting the World's Oceans

Meet the Faces of the Ocean Hero Junior Awards!

Posted Fri, Jun 14, 2013 by Sarah Williamson to kids, ocean hero, ocean hero awards, ocean hero junior

Winners of the 2010 Ocean Hero Award, the Shark Finatics' most recent project involved plastic bottles filled with important ocean conservation messages. 

The Shark Finatics were the 2010 Ocean Hero Awards Junior Winners!

Since winning the Ocean Hero Award in 2010, the Shark Finatics have expanded their conservation work beyond their original shark adoption efforts.

This past fall, they participated in Asher Jay’s “creative diaspora,” when plastic bottles they decorated and filled with important ocean conservation messages were featured in the Washington, DC, exhibit of “Sea Speak Sphere.”

Meet the Faces of the Ocean Hero Awards!

Posted Thu, Jun 6, 2013 by Justine Sullivan to Daily Ocean Plastic, ocean hero, ocean hero awards, Ocean Plastic, pollution, sara bayles

Sara Bayles was a 2010 Ocean Hero Awards Finalist.

In May 2009, Sara Bayles started her Daily Ocean Project, in which she pledged to do 365 (non-consecutive) 20-minute beach cleanups and blog about it the whole way through.  Two and a half years later, on December 8, 2012, she completed her last clean up, tallying 1,333.1 pounds of trash removed from her local beach in Santa Monica!

Although she’s completed her original goal, Sara is not turning her back on the littered beaches. 

The 5th Annual Ocean Hero Awards Coming Soon!

Posted Wed, Jun 5, 2013 by Justine Sullivan to ocean hero, ocean hero awards, young ocean hero

WANTED: Ocean Heroes. Could it be you? 

Do you know an individual (maybe yourself?) with a devotion to protecting and preserving our world’s oceans? Do you know someone who is working to save the oceans in new and unique ways? If so, you can nominate them for Oceana’s 5^th Annual Ocean Hero Awards between June 8^th – June 28^th! www.oceana.org/heroes

Ocean Hero Finalists: Ayla Besemer

Posted Mon, May 10, 2010 by Emily Fisher to activism, al gore, ayla besemer, inconvenient truth, junior ocean heroes, kids, monterey bay aquarium, ocean hero awards, ocean hero finalists, save our seas presentation

Ayla Besemer (Age 8 in the photo) relocates a sea start that washed up on the beach. Image courtesy the Besemer family.

This is the seventh in a series of posts about this year’s Ocean Hero finalists.

Last week I highlighted our adult Ocean Hero finalists, so this week it’s the juniors’ turn. First up is 13-year-old Ayla Besemer, who may just be the next Al Gore -- for the oceans. (Except she is way cuter.)

Inspired by the beauty of the creatures in the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” 13-year-old Ayla and her friend Simon created “Save Our Seas,” an interactive presentation kids everywhere can give that highlights ocean threats and 15 actions kids can take today.

To date, Ayla has given her “Save Our Seas” presentation to more than 1,500 people in seven states and the Bahamas.