 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. Thank you to our youth participants, presenters, mentors, partners, and sponsors for your support of the 2025 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, and the impact of this event over the past 15 years. A special thank you to Mote Marine Laboratory and your staff for your continued belief in this work and the critical role of youth leadership in driving ocean protection. We look forward to continuing to build on this momentum in the year ahead! 
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 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.
Congratulations and kudos to our 2023-2024 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit mini-grant recipients! We are so proud of our recipients each year and are continually amazed by their tenacity and passion for ocean conservation. A special thank you to the Johnson Ohana Foundation, Popsockets, and supporters of our YOCS annual auction fundraiser for their contributions to make this grant program possible.  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.” Anik Sahai - Force of Nature I'm creating an app, "Force of Nature", targeted at teens as a way to spread educational awareness on plastic pollution prevention as well as community cleanups through fun interactive challenges that give rewards. The app features interactive challenges like bringing your own bag or picking up trash. Users challenge friends, promoting eco-awareness. Completed challenges, proven with photos, earn points redeemable at local businesses. 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.”  Hannah Mathenge - Denyenye Beach Cleaners “The Denyenye Beach Cleaners project is dedicated to the cleanup and preservation of the Denyenye Reef area of Kwale County, Kenya. This initiative is focused on engaging women and youths within the community. The theory behind this targeted approach lies in recognizing the specific challenges faced by women due to the impacts of climate change. By involving them, the project aims to empower and inclusively engage these groups, ensuring their active participation in safeguarding the local ocean environment. Additionally, this project provides an opportunity for women and youths to gain valuable skills related to waste sorting, data collection, and ocean mapping, which can lead to potential employment and community leadership roles. By fostering community engagement, raising environmental awareness, and building a more resilient community, this initiative embodies a holistic approach to addressing climate change and ocean conservation." Selone Nuah - Trash to Art (TAT) “Liberia is a country located on the West Coast of Africa; however, lack of proper waste management facilities often force people to throw away their trash in water sources like oceans, lakes, and rivers. This has resulted in a negative attitude towards trash. For my Trash to Art (TAT) project, I aim to collaborate with high school students in Monrovia, Liberia and create art pieces from collected ocean trash. With this project, I hope to inspire the love of cleaning the ocean and creating inspirational art pieces that tell a story about how we can grow to appreciate the ocean's richness.”  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.” Dave Mathenge - Beach Clean-Up "The Beach clean-up initiative involves removing plastic bottles, papers, debris, and creating public awareness through my team. My main objective is maintaining marine life.” 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.” Meet our 2022-2023 Grant Recipients (and don't forget to register for YOCS 2023 on Sept. 16th!!)8/24/2023
 As we gear up for the 2023 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit on September 16th, we wanted to share with you some of the amazing things our attendees have gone on to do with the support of the Summit. Meet the amazing individuals who designed projects that earned grants from the Summit last year - Hannah, Lily, Kayla, Dennis, Cheyenne, Dave, Patricia, Ella Grace, Steve, Leila, Olivia, and Amani!
Hannah Mathenge - Save the Sea Turtles Ecosystem Hannah’s project, Save the Sea Turtles Ecosystem, seeks to conduct beach cleanups in turtle nesting grounds along the Msambweni beaches on the coast of Kenya. The project also aims to alter the local community’s mindset from a culture of “linear use” to one of reducing, reusing, recycling, and upcycling marine litter. Save the Sea Turtles Ecosystem looks to empower the community by creating revenue around upcycled marine litter products as well as promoting conservation of their local ecosystem. Lily Free - Do Green & Clean Lily’s project is focused on hosting themed local beach cleanups. Lily will plan, host, and incentivize the cleanups by offering prizes, and market the cleanups to the surrounding community. Kayla Fowler - Emma and Wellie: Plastic? Not so Fintastic! Emma and Wellie is a children’s book written by Kayla Fowler on the dangers of plastic pollution in the ocean. Presented in a way that is both fun and engaging for young readers, Kayla hopes that the story of Emma the turtle and Wellie the dolphin will encourage children to become ocean stewards, no matter how far they live from the ocean. The book is currently being illustrated, and Kayla is excited to showcase the finished product soon! Dennis Wambugu - Eco Mashinani Cleanup Through his project, the Eco Mashinani Cleanup, Dennis is working to clean plastic pollution and debris from the sands of Mombasa Beach in Kenya. So far, his cleanup has been successful and may expand to other beaches in the future! Cheyenne Davis - Zoo Teen Beach Bucket Project Cheyenne has partnered with the Beach Bucket Foundation to bring specially-designed trash receptacles to her local beach. These receptacles allow the entire community to participate in cleaning up the beach whenever they visit. Dave Mathenge - Bahari Power Dave’s project is focused on collecting cigarettes, plastic bottles, and other debris from his local beaches. The project is targeted towards other youth to create awareness on the importance of maintaining and conserving beaches and the ocean. Patricia Cummings - Saving Sea Turtles Saving Sea Turtles, led by Patricia Cummings, is working to prevent local turtle strandings as well as to educate students on the dangers and reasons behind strandings. Students participate in a brief presentation and then assist in hands-on rescue efforts by walking to local beaches and searching for any stranded turtles. If and when stranded turtles are located, students assist with data collection and preparing the turtles for transport to the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts. Ella Grace Galaski-Rossen - Chatting with Ella to Save the Ocean Ella’s project is focused on outreach about ocean conservation to elementary school children. During presentations, Ella explains the crisis our oceans are facing, as well as educating children on how they can make a difference at home and encouraging them to get involved in local cleanup efforts. Steve Misati - Mangrove Eco-Restoration Project The Mangrove Eco-Restoration Project, created by Steve Misati, is working to bring awareness and training on conservation initiatives to local communities by utilizing a participatory and community-based approach. The project hopes to plant 2500 mangrove trees to assist in the recovery and strengthening of marine ecosystems in Mombasa, Kenya. Leila Harb - Cooking with Crabs Leila’s project is focused on raising awareness about the problems surrounding the invasive Green Crabs. By showing families how to cook Green Crabs, the project helps show the community how they can be part of the solution to the problem this invasive species causes. The project aims to develop easy and fun recipes, eventually compiling them into cookbooks! Olivia Almond - Pounds to Prizes Pounds to Prizes, created by Olivia Almond, will involve school students in ocean conservation by sending groups of middle schoolers to teach fifth grade classes on how to protect their local beaches. The project also encourages students to participate in cleanups by offering prizes based on the number of pounds they bring in. Amani Agzenay - Wind Can With their project, Wind Can, Amani aims to create a design for boat trash cans that will trap the trash inside so it does not contribute to marine pollution. Wind Can will work with students to come up with designs, later choosing the best designs and turning them into prototypes to be tested. Congratulations and kudos to our 2023 YOCS grant recipients! We are so proud of our grant recipients every year and are continually amazed by their tenacity and passion for ocean conservation. If you want a chance to start your own project to promote ocean conservation, be sure to register for our 2023 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, coming to Mote Marine Laboratory and virtual audiences everywhere on September 16th!! “Sea” you there! Register today! http://www.yocs.org/2023-summit We are thrilled to announce the 2021-2022 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit mini-grant recipients! Building on the 2021 Summit, which united young conservation leaders from 20 countries, our mini-grant recipients are committed to tackling diverse ocean conservation challenges around the world through innovative, solutions-oriented approaches. We are honored to support their work by providing funding and support for their conservation project plans. A special thanks to our incredible partners at the Johnson Ohana Foundation, PopSockets, Klean Kanteen, and EarthEcho International, as well as our individual donors, for their generous support to make this year’s mini-grant program possible. Read on to learn more about this year’s grantees!  Artash Nath’s Monitor My Ocean WebApp will demonstrate a quantitative model to monitor annual changes in anthropogenic ocean noise levels and provide a model to help demonstrate how ambient noise levels, in global oceans, decreased when COVID-19 related restrictions were in place. His research will help mitigate the adverse impacts of economic exploitation of oceans and climate change on marine biodiversity. Blakeslee Krusen, and the students at Palm Beach Day Academy, plan to launch a Tarpon Cove Water Quality project. To implement their project, they will test the quality of the water around Tarpon Cove, a restoration project area in the Lake Worth Lagoon. They will carry out their testing before and after mangroves are planted and artificial reefs are placed in the surrounding waters. Together, they will be monitoring and documenting water quality for 10 months, and hope that this restoration work will be impactful. They will also be studying biodiversity as an indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Their team will be working with MANG, No Shoes Reef, Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management, and the Reefball Foundation to accomplish this mission. Bobby McGee Lee from La Trinidad, Philippines plans to launch the Indigenous Lake Conservation Project by investing in youth to become conservation advocates for water systems and sources. The project will engage and immerse local youth in a storytelling/book club series on the lakes in Kabayan, with a focus on highlighting the roles of these lakes among the indigenous communities in order for the area youth to fully understand their importance to these communities, and the ripple effects if these water systems are not taken care of. The sessions will be designed to draw the attention and creativity of youth, aligning with the indigenous knowledge, systems and practices, in order to come up with sustainable solutions to address these water areas. Once educated on the issue, youth will have an opportunity to advocate for these water areas and will be encouraged to come up with plans to take action to protect these vital ecosystems.  The Eco-Schools MV Project will unite sixth and seventh-grade students, from Massachusetts, who are focused on helping schools across our country reduce the amount of plastic waste they dispose of each year. By 2025, their goal is to have helped three schools become more eco-conscious. They plan to give educational presentations to local administrators, politicians, and students and are planning to help educate citizens on the effects of climate change and pollution. Folasade and Demilade Obaitan are teaming up to launch a marine science club in their home Kingdom of Ososo, in Edo State Nigeria. Through this platform, they plan to share their passion and help inspire local youth to engage in ocean conservation efforts through film screenings, digital classes and webinars, cleanups, and a field trip to the healthy waters of River Niger / River Benue Confluence. Hannah Mathenge plans to work to engage local communities in Kenya in learning about the challenges of plastic pollution, climate change, and overfishing while directly engaging in the cleanup of ocean plastic and the restoration of key marine habitats in the region. She hopes to advocate for the creation of jobs for youth to sustain this restoration work in the future.  The Plastic Free Mermaids mission is to spread awareness about plastic pollution through education, outreach, art, and political advocacy. Based at a local high school in South Florida, members treasure the beauty of their local beaches and waterways. They believe that the best way to combat the plastic pollution crisis is by individual actions and inspiring those around you. With support from this grant, the Plastic Free Mermaids plan to host and attend community service events and interact with local government officials to advocate for policies that reduce single use plastics. Iesha Baldwin, plans to lead an environmental and scientific exploration project in her hometown of Dublin, Georgia for a group of K-12 students. Her goal is for students to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the Oconee River and the Atlantic Ocean while gaining basic water analysis skills. In addition to YOCS, the project is also supported by, Let's Be Bigger, The Bloom, and ZaZa's Kitchen. Jacinta Ukaegbu, from Nigeria, is leading the SPC Ocean Conservation Project – a program designed for secondary school students with the aim of educating them on environmental issues and mobilizing them to become involved in salvaging our future through advocacy and civic engagement.  Youth Ocean Advocates for Hudson Canyon, at the New York Aquarium, plan to organize events for World Ocean Day, with a focus on Hudson Canyon, to inspire people to take conservation action. To achieve their goals, the youth will be creating activity stations, both in the aquarium, and on the boardwalk in Coney Island. The stations, plastic pollution, endangered and keystone species, include games for kids and informational aspects for wildlife enthusiasts. CAN you help the Hudson? Yes, you CANyon! Kayla Fowler and Summer Smentek are completing a children's book about ocean conservation (titled Emma & Wellie) which focuses on the effects of plastic pollution on marine life in an informative and engaging way. Kayla and Summer are passionate about conservation and education and hope that the book, along with the resources they are creating to go with it, will inspire young kids and their families to step up as environmental stewards. They are excited about sharing the book this coming summer! Through her project, “Indigenous Waterway Understanding: Healing Together” Lorelei McIntyre-Brewer plans to lead an educational series to share indigenous conservation methods needed to help restore ecological balance in watershed areas to improve water quality and ecosystem health. This series plans on providing access to Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members through a variety of unique learning opportunities.  The Nauticus Youth Action Council actively works to better their community through environmental stewardship and education. Over the course of 2022 they are planning to hold at least 3 community cleanups at which they will coordinate the cleanup of the Nauticus campus and surrounding green spaces and waterways. YAC volunteers will also develop and present ocean conservation themed programming for Nauticus guests. Finally, they continue to share their love for the marine environment by participating in the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit. Through his Creatures to Classroom project, Michael Ladd plans to connect elementary school students in Massachusetts with local marine organisms. This innovative project involves bringing live, local plants and animals, from five coastal habitats into elementary classrooms. Student presenters will work with a marine ecologist and science teacher to develop and deliver lessons that meet the learning goals of the age group while providing a fun, empathy-building experience. Morel Marly Mensah, from Benin Republic, plans to lead the “Clean Up” project, which will strive to eliminate plastic bags from a local school, increase recycling. They are also planning to lead clean up efforts to manage waste on their local beaches.  Neville Agesa, from Kenya, plans to lead the Sea Turtle Sensitization Programme. This project is the continuation of a Sea Turtle Monitoring Program off the South Coast of Kenya. The Msambweni Turtle Watch Program’s objectives are to implement best nest management plans, minimize nest predation, and build a Sea Turtle Learning Community to support conservation of Kenya’s sea turtles. Olive Barkley's Wonders of Whaling Project,plans to engage local students, in Massachusetts, in learning about the history of whaling and the critical importance of protecting whales through fun, educational activities. Participants will also be engaged in “adopting” a local section of coastline to help eliminate marine debris that could impact marine mammals. Ryan Moralevitz plans to use the YOCS grant funds to inspire other young ocean conservationists by hosting a reading of his books, InspirOcean and Puffy the Pufferfish Saves the Ocean, for kids at the Children’s Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. Building on his previous work raising funds for the Cancer Center, through selling anglerfish driftwood ornaments, Ryan plans to share copies of his books, and plush Puffy the Pufferfish stuffed animal, to bring love and awareness of the ocean to this incredible community of children.  Steve Misati plans to lead a Mangrove Reforestation project in Kenya, addressing the challenges of mangrove loss along the coastline of the Indian Ocean. Through this project, Steve plans to engage the local community in restoring mangrove habitats in Mombasa while educating them on the importance of mangrove and ocean conservation.
Sienna Lang plans to launch her elementary school’s first ever environmental club. The club will focus on teaching students about pollution, ocean health, biodiversity, climate change and much more. Participants will also be invited to participate in Sienna’s initiative, Less Plastic Fantastic, which is a neighborhood trash clean-up project. Lastly, the club will be writing letters to the President in support of protecting 30% of our land and ocean by 2030. 2021 Youth Ocean Conservation Summit Builds Capacity of Young Ocean Advocates from 20 Countries!2/11/2022  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! Guest post by the UGA Marine Extension Education Fellows We had such a great time virtually hosting the 7th annual Youth Ocean Conservation Summit! Each year the Marine Education Fellows and volunteers work hard to plan and put on this event, and with this year’s YOCS being virtual, it presented some unique challenges. During the event, our 43 participants were able to hear and learn from our awesome speakers, including Dr. Dove from the Georgia Aquarium! We also had incredible speakers from Savannah State, Georgia Southern, and the University of Georgia. We’d like to take this time to thank our engaging speakers and also our fabulous volunteers for a job well done, and we already can’t wait for next year! Learn more about the Savannah Youth Ocean Conservation Summit! 2020 was a tumultuous year, to say the least. However, despite the chaos and uncertainty of a global pandemic, our youth grant recipients forged ahead and doubled down on their commitments to protect our blue planet. From planning the opening of eco-friendly online stores to organizing COVID-safe clean-up flotillas, YOCS grant recipients are staying busy and vigilant. That's why we're incredibly humbled and excited to highlight the faces and projects of our 2020-2021 youth grant recipients. Read about their upcoming work and their passions below. Alexandra Adamo is using her grant to launch Eco-SHOP, an organization dedicated to providing resources and information regarding sustainable shopping. Eco-SHOP is using its YOCS funding to buy materials to create reusable totes. Along with selling tote bags on their website and Instagram (@ecoshop_usa), eco-SHOP will use its digital platform as a tool to educate followers about sustainable shopping.  Kayla Fowler is using her YOCS grant to begin development on an ocean conservation-themed children's book which will feature characters like Emma the turtle and Wellie the dolphin. Kayla’s book is designed to raise awareness about marine life and conservation. Writing to us about her project, Kayla said: "The goal for me is to raise awareness in young kids of the need for ocean conservation, but in a way that is both fun and engaging." Keep an eye out for her book later this year. Next up is Anya Gupta and her project: Pennies for Penguins. Her goal is to help move penguins off of the endangered species list. To do this, her work addresses the ways Climate Change, habitat destruction, and plastic waste affect the health of penguin populations. Through her website, vlogs, and social platforms, she works to educate families on the necessity of reusable goods, on the harms of single-use plastics, and on a myriad of other ways they can help preserve the planet. The next grant recipient, Nate Harrison, is a ten-year-old conservationist and ocean health/marine life activist. His latest project, a beautifully illustrated children’s book titled, “One Reef”, focuses on the importance of coral reefs and the impact of human (in)action. He hopes that his book will help educate and inspire the next generation of young environmentalists.  lana Szarf and her South Broward High School club, Plastic-Free Mermaids, will use their YOCS grant to tackle the local plastic pollution crisis. Ilana and the club hold virtual meetings twice a month and discuss different ways to approach the plastic pollution crisis amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The club regularly interacts with their Florida state legislators to urge them to pass laws that ban single-use plastics. Likewise, they also strive to protect the beauty of their shores in real-time by holding socially distant beach clean-ups. Julia Aveline-Rabenjoro is a 13-year-old French national who lives in Sabah, Borneo. Her project, Seed of Hope, works to raise money for marine conservation organizations in Borneo. As a diver, she's been witness to countless examples of pollution, ghost netting, reef destruction, and marine biodiversity loss. Her goals are to help reduce single-use plastic in Borneo and to raise as much awareness as possible via interviews on her Facebook page and through her ebooks - which she plans to release later this year. Through their Protect our Prehistoric Pals project, students at River Valley Charter School will use their YOCS grant funding to organize marsh cleanups to help ensure horseshoe crab habitat is free of debris. Additionally, they will lead efforts to educate visitors at the Parker River National Wildlife River, as well as their peers, about the importance of horseshoe crabs.  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. 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. 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.  Also gracing the international scene is Dr. Paresh Poriya and the Coastal Clean-Up Campaign. This campaign will be organized on different coasts of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat state. Targeting pilgrimage and tourist areas, bachelor, master students, and Ph.D. research scholars of various institutes will create enticing slogans and posters that raise awareness about plastic pollution in the Eastern state of India. Kaeleigh Belanger is using her YOCS grant to launch Save Our Planet, Save Our Lives. It's a project that will be designed to remove trash from the Merrimack River. Kaeleigh will organize volunteers to go out in kayaks and small boats to fish trash out of the water before it makes its way to the ocean. Save Our Planet, Save Our Lives will also organize beach clean-ups in trash hotspots along the river basin. Their hope is to reduce the entanglement and ingestion of microplastics by marine life while educating boaters, beachgoers, and their classmates. Leah Edwards and the Fort Lauderdale High School Surfrider Environmental Club are working to educate and motivate their community on issues of environmental awareness. With the YOCS grant, they plan on purchasing a composting bin and materials to create a school garden that will divert organic waste from landfills and from producing greenhouse gases. This will be a project that furthers their advocacy efforts, in addition to their in-school bottle water bottle refilling stations and bottle cap mural.  Maya Lander and the Lakewood Ranch High School Marine Conservation Club are using their YOCS grant to fund the installation of a water bottle refill station on campus. It will be the first at their school and will act as a revolutionary yet simple way to curb the use of single-use plastics at their school. To learn more about their project, check out their Instagram @lrhs_marine. This summer, Sierra Pargett and the Cape Ann Boat Landing Clean-Up plan to collect, sort, count, log, and properly dispose of the debris from a different landing each Saturday while adhering to the current COVID guidelines. Sierra and her crew will be qualifying the debris by categories, as described on the Rozalia long sheet. The information will then be input into the Marine Debris Tracker, an international marine database sponsored by National Geographic. To promote public awareness, she will post a picture of the trash at the boat landing with all participants and debris totals on the Cape Ann Boat Landing Clean-up Facebook, seascoutshipno.5, and submit her findings to the local paper. Camille Rivera plans to use her grant to launch a book reading and storytelling event titled "Ocean Adventures with Cory." Focusing on coral reef awareness, this event will educate young kids on pressing marine conservation issues. As Camille writes: "Storybooks are one way to bring together youth and coastal kids to enhance reading and also ocean literacy in Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental, Philippines! By doing this kind of program, we are not only educating kids, these storybooks will also be printed for the local teachers so they can continue teaching about the importance of coral reefs every year!"  The Nauticus Youth Action Council is also a 2020-2021 YOCS grant recipient. They will be using their funds to host a clean-up day and educate their community about environmental stewardship activities they can take part in locally and at home. This will including setting up virtual events that community members can take part in independently and safely. Working with the Mass Oyster Project, Nicolette Stamos will collect water samples from the Upweller where the oysters are being raised. She'll document and take pictures of the organic material in the samples and check water quality (Temperature, Salinity, DO). Her work is a part of a baseline collection effort for the waters in the Upweller and Gloucester harbor. With this information, the Mass Oyster Project can compare future Upweller and Harbor water data to the baseline and notice any anomalies that may be concerning. Last but not least amongst our 2020-2021 grant recipients are Michelle and Jeremy Muchilwa and their campaign: Bring Back Lake Victoria. Bring Back Lake Victoria seeks to restore Lake Victoria to its pristine condition and to eradicate plastic pollution in the lake. Michelle and Jeremy are creating a platform for different people to come together and work towards solving the problem of plastic pollution in the lake. In their words: "Plastic pollution is more than just an environmental problem, it is destroying livelihoods and affecting human health." As such, they have been executing a multi-prong approach to raise awareness, take direct action, and conduct research on this pressing issue. A special thanks to the Johnson Ohana Foundation, PopSockets, the Captain Planet Foundation, Klean Kanteen, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, and our individual donors for their generous support of our Youth Ocean Conservation Summit mini-grant program and to the team at Mote Marine Laboratory for making this grant program possible!
 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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