​This November marked a milestone for the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit (YOCS) as we celebrated 15 transformative years of empowering young ocean advocates dedicated to protecting our blue planet. Since launching in 2011, YOCS has grown into a cornerstone annual event - a space where youth voices lead, ideas flourish, and ocean conservation projects take root. 

​This year’s Summit brought together more than 100 passionate youth participants and adult mentors on November 15 at the new Mote Science Education Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. Against the backdrop of this incredible new venue, attendees engaged in a full day of networking, interactive skill building workshops, and project planning to drive action advancing ocean protection in their local communities.  

​Backed by a dynamic YOCS Crew of high school student leaders, the 2025 Summit was once again authentically youth-driven in planning and implementation. This team guided the program, ensuring every session was relevant, engaging, and inspiring for their peers. 

​Throughout the day, Summit attendees participated in a variety of themed experiential sessions, designed to increase participant’s knowledge of ocean conservation challenges and solutions. Focus areas for these engaging tracks included coastal and benthic ecology, ocean technology and innovation, creative arts for ocean advocacy, and leadership development. These sessions were led by teams of young leaders partnered with adult mentors, highlighting intergenerational collaboration as a theme throughout the event. Equipped with the knowledge and skills from these sessions, participants united with their peers to develop creative action projects for their own ocean conservation projects to implement in their local communities. 

​​This year’s event also provided a moment to reflect on the Summit’s long-standing impact. Since 2011, thousands of youth participants have been equipped with the knowledge, skills, and funding to make meaningful changes for the ocean through the Sarasota based event and satellite Summits across the United States. 

​Congratulations to our 2024-2025 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit mini-grant recipients! We are honored to support and celebrate the work of this incredible group of young ocean leaders, who are driving creative projects around the world to advance ocean protection in their communities. A special thank you to the Johnson Ohana Foundation, Popsockets, The Coastal Stewards, the Island Vet, and supporters of our YOCS annual auction fundraiser for their contributions to make this grant program possible.

​As an Ocean Ambassador with Manta Trust, Coco Claypoole is creating an informational webinar for her peers which is focused on Manta Ray Conservation and will feature Jessica Pate, a scientist with the Florida Manta Project.
 
Morel Marly Mensah will support youth community members in learning about the dangers of plastic pollution. This project will work to propose alternative solutions to plastic while organizing community beach cleanups through their Say No To Plastic Bags Project in Porto-Novo, Benin.  
Jacinta Ukaegbu’s Heritage Conservation Project will organize student led outreach programs and school visits focused on providing resources, educational content, and training to support local youth in advocating for the protection and restoration of biodiversity of the Bodo Rivers.  

​Ryan Moralevitz’s InspirOcean film will seek to inspire audiences to take action to protect the ocean by featuring engaging stories from ocean conservation champions, awe-inspiring IMAX ocean footage, and beautiful music.  

Brianna Knight is focused on coordinating with local businesses in her Florida community to reduce their use of plastic bags, while ultimately working to create new policies and regulations to address single use plastics. 

​Neville Agesa will lead a comprehensive effort, Generating Benefits for Climate, Community, and Biodiversity: Establishing long term management of mangrove forest while creating sustainable livelihoods in coastal areas of Kwale County, Kenya. The project involves local community leaders in beach management and cleanups, school based environmental clubs focused on ocean literacy and mangrove stewardship, sea turtle monitoring and conservation efforts with university students, and a collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service. 
 
Through their Bins for Beaches project, Olivia Scott will coordinate with local volunteers to decorate and creatively design trash cans and deploy them at local beachfronts to address the impacts of plastic pollution. 

​Through the Nyali Beach Cleanup project, Dennis Wambugu will organize a series of community cleanups and ocean education programs for local youth to address the impact of plastic pollution on local beaches in Kenya
 
Dave Mathenge will lead the Mombasa Beach Cleanup program to address plastic pollution on Mombasa beach in Kenya. The project will focus on youth ages 5-7, engaging them in beach cleanups while learning about marine conservation through games, storytelling, and crafts. 

Through his Rivers to Oceans project, Cash Daniels will expand his existing Monofilament recycling project to the state of Mississippi, building on his current fishing line recycling initiatives in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Michigan.
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Bobby McGee Lee will lead the Indigenous Lake Conservation project, with a focus on engaging elementary pupils, teachers, and culture bearers in communities within the four lakes in Kabayan, Benguet, creating space for intergenerational learning and collaboration focused on watershed health. 

​Gabrielle Bohager’s Mangrove Conservation Marine Tank project builds on a long term research assignment focused on human impacts on mangrove ecosystems. The Project will create a functional mangrove ecosystem to educate students on protecting Florida’s Indian River Lagoon.

​The Plastic Free Mermaids project, led by Franchesca Marino, will unite high school students to organize beach cleanups in South Florida, while also organizing an on-campus recycling competition among teachers and students to address the impacts of plastic pollution on campus.

​Motivated to act by the impacts of recent hurricanes in south Florida, Benjamin Morrisson’s Coast Guardians project will mobilize youth and community members to lead a dune restoration project, rebuilding critical coastline habitat for shore birds and sea turtles.
 
Kush Gulati will lead an innovative research project focused on understanding the impacts of natural phenomena such as wave motion, temperature, salinity, nutrient content and dissolved oxygen on newly out-planted corals from restoration projects, helping to ultimately understand the impacts of anthropogenic stressors and to develop recommendations for coral restoration organizations around the world.

​Through PEAK – Promoting Ecology and Kids, Colin Smith is collaborating with local partners to lead an Earth Day school lesson focused on water quality and the importance of oyster restoration efforts to improve coastal ecosystem health. 

Steve Misati - Mangrove Restoration Ocean Conservation Project
"The Youth Pawa organization's Mangrove Eco-restoration Project empowers coastal communities in Kenya to revive mangrove ecosystems. Through education, training, and alternative ways of livelihoods, we plant mangrove trees, rebuild mangrove ecosystems, and safeguard both nature and our livelihoods. Our project aims to restore over 50 hectares of degraded vital mangroves ecosystems in Mombasa, Kenya by 2030, with our yearly goal for planting 10000 mangroves while conserving the existing ecosystems.”

Gabrielle Bohager - Marine Science Lab Mangrove Tank
“Our Marine Science class is developing a lab which has been in the works for the last 6 years. We are trying to create tanks which will represent different habitats in our marine ecosystem in the hope that we can discover how to preserve and protect our local marine life and restore their necessary habitats.”

Kush Gulati - Save Our Oceans
“I am working on my ongoing project ‘Save Our Oceans’ which investigates the effectiveness of naturally occurring substances in neutralizing ocean pollutants such as fertilizer runoff, microplastics, and oil spills. Through controlled experiments and comparative analysis, I have identified promising substances like peppermint oil for microplastics and potato root for fertilizer runoff, along with many others, offering potential alternatives to chemical-based interventions. I will experiment with these substances to see if they are efficient at reducing the amount of pollutants in the oceans.”

​Dennis Wambugu - Coast Safi Project
“The Coast Safi Project entails conducting community beach cleans-up events to remove plastic waste which can then be recycled. In the process, the project helps collect waste from local businesses to discourage dumping them into the ocean.”

​Sospeter Mayani - The Diani Beach Clean-Up
“This project consists of a beach cleanup project in Diani Beach, Kenya. It will help to protect the environment and improve the quality of life for the local community by removing litter from the beach and disposing of it properly. The project will reach tourists, local residents, and marine life.”

​The 2021 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit united over 260 participants from 20 countries on Saturday, December 4, virtually connecting a global community of young ocean advocates and equipping attendees with the knowledge and resources needed to launch solutions-oriented ocean conservation projects. The Summit kicked-off with a keynote presentation by ocean advocate and waterwoman, Anupa Aoskan, who shared her stories and lessons learned from diverse experiences working at the intersection of science, policy, conservation, and community engagement. Summit attendees then had the opportunity to hear from their peers, with YOCS grant recipients highlighting the impact of their projects over the past year – ranging from plastic pollution prevention campaigns in South Florida to ocean literacy workshops for kids in the Philippines. 

​While our first time participants got to work planning out their own ocean conservation projects through our YOCS Action Planning workshop, our returning attendees explored opportunities to further their passion for the ocean through our Careers in Ocean Conservation panel. The remainder of the Summit equipped participants with tools and resources to bring their conservation project plans to life, with sessions on topics focused on art, policy/advocacy, leadership, story telling, plastic pollution and climate change, marine research, and creating business plans. 

​The Summit program is made possible with support from Mote Marine Laboratory, and while participants couldn’t visit Mote in person this year, Mote’s education team brought Mote Aquarium to attendees around the world through a special live education program with Mote’s resident manatees! The Summit wrapped up with a series of networking sessions, allowing attendees to meet fellow conservation leaders and organizations from around the world! 

​For the first time, this year’s Summit was followed by a YOCS Global Day of Ocean Action, which provided participants the opportunity to unite through a shared day of conservation actions starting in their local communities. From coastal cleanups to educational outreach beach days, the YOCS community took the inspiration from the Summit and turned it into immediate action.
 
We look forward to supporting the work of our YOCS community as they carry out their ocean conservation projects in the year ahead!

 A special thank you to our YOCS participants, volunteers, presenters, sponsors, and partners for your support to make this program possible!  

Young conservation leaders from around the world are invited to the 2021 virtual Youth Ocean Conservation Summit on Saturday,  December 4, 2021! We’re thrilled to once again unite a global audience of young conservation leaders through this digital YOCS event, hosted in partnership with Mote Marine Laboratory. The Summit will provide participants with the knowledge, tools, and funds needed to launch or expand solutions-oriented ocean conservation projects in their community. Through an exciting line up of sessions, workshops, and activities, attendees will gain inspiration, ideas, resources, and new connections to help amplify our collective efforts to protect our ocean planet. The Summit is FREE, but pre-registration is required, and limited spaces will be filled on a first come, first served basis. View the complete 2021 Summit Program and register for this year’s event by November 28!

​YOCS Global Day of Ocean Action - Sunday, December 5th, 2021
On Sunday, December 5, Youth Ocean Conservation Summit participants and partners around the world will unite for the first YOCS Global Day of Ocean Action! This year, when participants register for the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, they’ll be asked to commit to taking an ocean conservation action locally on December 5 and sharing the impact as part of this global event.

Interested in organizing a larger YOCS Day of Ocean Action event for others in your community? Register your event today!

Owen Studdiford is using his YOCS grant to clean up the trash and old fishing equipment that gets stuck in Charlotte Harbor's mangrove forests. After fishing with his dad and being dismayed by the sight of trash choking up his favorite fishing spots, Owen decided to take action. To protect his fishing grounds and the wildlife that lives there, he plans to dedicate a set number of days to clean up Charlotte Harbor.
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Marie Nancy Chimanuka is also one of our international grant recipients. She plans to use her YOCS grant to recover the recyclable waste that collects on Lake Kivu's shores. She and her allies chose to tackle this issue because the water at Lake Kivu is crucial to the health, economy, and diets of the Lake Kivu community and the surrounding river delta. Stay tuned for more updates on the Lake Kivu cleanup.

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In a futuristic and inspiring use of his YOCS grant, Artash Nath is using his funding to build a low-cost robotic vehicle. The bot will take water quality measurements and photographs of Lake Ontario. This vehicle will be powered by open-source electronics such as Arduino. Additionally, some of the instruments on the bot are going to be designed at home using everyday materials. The instructions on how to build the vehicle, the software code used, and the data obtained from the vehicle will be posted online - so that the project can be replicated by anyone who is interested in water quality data collection. 

​The 2020 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit celebrated a decade of youth leadership for the ocean! This year’s Summit united over 350 youth and adults from around the world for two days and equipped  participants with the tools needed to develop innovative, solutions-oriented ocean conservation projects to implement in their local communities. This 10th anniversary Summit, the largest to date, was hosted virtually in partnership with Mote Marine Laboratory. The Summit provided an opportunity for a global audience of young conservation leaders and mentors to connect– creating a unique collaborative learning environment to foster new ideas to fuel a youth movement to protect our blue planet. 

​The Summit kicked off on Friday, December 4 with the premiere of a new film by Running Wild Media highlighting the impact of the Summit program over the past decade. Special guests, ocean conservationist and marine policy advocate, Wendy Benchley, OCEARCH Founding Chairman and Expedition Leader, Chris Fischer, Director of the Chicago Zoological Society's Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, Dr. Randy Wells, and renowned marine life artist, Wyland, joined YOCS alumni for an impactful conversation on the need for ocean conservation action in the decade ahead and the critical role youth leadership plays in this work.

Saturday’s Summit kicked off with an inspiring keynote from explorer, filmmaker, and environmental advocate, Philippe Cousteau. Presentations from YOCS alumni, from across the country, provided inspiration and ideas to our global audience of participants as they prepared to tackle the challenges facing our ocean environment. Through our digital action planning session, first time participants brainstormed and developed conservation project plans with support from their peers and mentors. Returning attendees explored the world of ocean conservation careers with an inspiring panel of guests. Throughout the remainder of the day, attendees took part in workshops on topics including filmmaking and communication, project development, storytelling, fundraising, climate change, political advocacy, coral reef restoration, community-based conservation, plastic pollution, leadership development and more! An all-star panel of our former YOCS keynote speakers – including Wendy Benchley, Chris Fischer, Jennifer Gray, Julie Henry, Dr. Ellen Prager, and Julie Scardina connected with participants to brainstorm ideas to take their conservation projects to the next level. Attendees closed out the day by joining a series of networking rooms to build connections with leading ocean conservation organizations and their peers. 

​As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, we reflect on the over 3,100 young conservation leaders from around the world who have been equipped with the tools to lead impactful, solutions-oriented ocean conservation projects through 45 Summits in 13 cities - each event driven by teams of youth in partnership with incredible conservation organizations. Through this work, we have built a global community of young leaders, and provided support to bring diverse conservation projects to life through a mini-grant program that has provided 165 grants to directly support young conservation leaders. This impact has been made possible through an incredible network of partner organizations, program sponsors, dedicated volunteer mentors, and youth leaders who understand the critical role young people play in ensuring a sustainable future for our blue planet. 

We look forward to the decade ahead and our continued work to empower the next generation of ocean conservationists!
 
A special thanks to the amazing staff and volunteers at Mote Marine Laboratory for their tireless dedication and support of this event over the past decade!
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