 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. 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.
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